Hungry Ghosts
by NE1410IS
Summary: Kagami returns to Japan at 30 years old, ready to settle down and work as a fire fighter. However, frightening murders are being committed across Tokyo, and soon he finds himself suspecting the strange, quiet man who lives next door... but things aren't what they appear to be, and Kuroko Tetsuya is no ordinary human. [KagaKuro][AU]
1. Chapter 1

**DISEMBOWLED BODY FOUND ON POLICE STATION DOORSTEP**

Well, that was a cheery headline to welcome him back to Japan. Kagami skimmed the article, feeling a little nauseous as he read some of the gorier details, before finally he folded the newspaper and set it where he'd found it, on one of the chairs in the break room.

He hesitated, and then picked it up again. He knew he shouldn't read it – after all, he didn't need something like this weighing on his mind while he was working – but he found himself unable not to. Wasn't that natural? A murder in your neighbourhood, you'd want to know more about it… and besides, it was a quiet night, and with the lull in activity in the station, he was pretty bored.

_…coroners say that the cause of death was natural, but were unable to provide an explanation for the damage to the body after death…_

_…flesh seemed to have been sheared away from the body by a sharp instrument…_

_... no leads as of yet. A spokesman says police are working as hard as possible to identify the killer, but lack substantial evidence…_

_…the victim has been identified and the family ordered no comment._

Well, that was pretty creepy. But what caught Kagami's eye was a sentence at the end of the article: _Police say that the likelihood of this incident being related to the corpses found in similar states earlier this month is high._

"That's messed up," Kagami said.

He wasn't really aware he'd said it out loud until he heard someone else say, "You come back to Japan in the middle of all this? Poor timing."

"Chief!" Kagami said, almost dropping the newspaper. He hoped he hadn't looked too wrapped up in the article. "I was just… it's awful, really."

"It is," the man agreed. Kagami liked his boss – he could be strict, but the older man was generally easy going and good to be around. He didn't even seem to care that Kagami spoke to him with the kind of impolite language that most people found disrespectful. "They found a couple of people like that at the start of the month – it was big news, but I guess you wouldn't have heard of it, seeing as you were in America. The police got a bad rap for not handling it well, but maybe this time they won't drag ass so much. Maybe they'll actually catch the guy."

"It wasn't a murder, was it? They said it was natural causes…" Kagami pointed out, and as soon as he'd said it, he knew it was stupid. No matter whether it was a murder or not, there was someone running around carving up bodies and leaving them on the street for people to find. That was, as Kagami had so eloquently put it, pretty messed up.

"You should head home, Kagami," the chief said, and Kagami only shrugged. It was about time he was leaving, so he thanked his boss and left, just giving a wave to the calls of 'good work tonight!' he heard as he traipsed out of the building. Coming off of a nightshift and travelling home when it felt like half the world was still asleep was a strange experience, but it was nothing out of the ordinary by now. Working as a fire fighter, you got used to your sleep patterns getting disrupted.

Kagami stood at the front door of his apartment, raking through his pockets searching for his keys. He finally found them, but he dropped them when a voice behind him said, "Hello."

He spun on his heel, prepared to yell at whoever had snuck up on him like that – because really, who did that – but he took one look at the shorter man standing in front of him and anything he'd been about to say left his mind.

Kagami's head spun and for a second he saw not a person's face in front of him but a skull: exposed yellow bone and empty eye sockets, a scrap of skin and rotten flesh clinging to it here and there, teeth bared in a humourless grin. He blinked, and his vision cleared. Blue. Blue eyes, blue hair, white skin, but dark like a shadow. Not a corpse, but a perfectly ordinary man – maybe in his twenties, a little younger than Kagami.

"Hello?" He said again.

"Um… hi," Kagami choked out. He still hadn't gotten over his- what the hell was that? A hallucination? From before, but he cleared his throat and said, "Sorry, can I help you…?"

"Not particularly. Sorry for startling you," he said, and the apology made Kagami's face heat. Looking at the kid now, he didn't know what there was to be scared of. He'd just been awake for too long, that was all; awake for too long, and then he'd gone and filled his head with gorey ideas and given himself the heebie-jeebies. He was lost in his thoughts until he heard the other speak again, after a long pause that he was now aware he should have filled with some sort of conversation. "Anyway, I was on my way out to work, and I thought I should say hello. I'm your neighbour, in apartment 2B. Kuroko Tetsuya."

"Ah- Taiga," Kagami answered. "Kagami Taiga."

There was another awkward silence, after which Kuroko's thin lips curved into a smile as he said, "You know, at this point, you should say something like 'it's nice to meet you', Kagami-kun."

"Why should _I _be the one to say that?"

Kuroko only stared at him, which frustrated him, and he gave an annoyed sigh before the shorter man said, "Anyway, I only wanted to say welcome to the building. I only just moved to the area a few weeks ago myself, but if you need any help, feel free to come see me."

"Yeah, sure. Thanks," Kagami muttered, though he had no intentions of doing so. He picked his keys up from where they'd landed on the floor and then turned to say goodbye, but the other was gone. "…Creep."

He made his way in, ate breakfast, and then collapsed onto his bed. As he drifted off to sleep, he had a fleeting thought that the blue eyes that had stared back at him hadn't had any more life than the empty sockets he'd been looking into only seconds before, but he pushed it out of his mind and promptly fell asleep.

a/n: i hope you liked minna-chans! (*´・ｖ・) this chapter is short and a little stupid but all will become clear. thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

Over the next few weeks, Kagami didn't see much of his next door neighbour. Sometimes they bumped into each other on the way to (and in Kagami's case, from) work in the morning, but that was about it. Each time Kuroko would greet him without fail, and Kagami would manage a grunt or a nod in return.

Other than that, he barely interacted with his neighbour. The other was strangely quiet. Not that Kagami was complaining about the peace, but it was _weird_. Sometimes it was as if nobody was living next door at all.

Kagami kept a careful eye on the news over the next few weeks. He wasn't sure why he was so curious about it – after all, he'd never been one to keep up with current events in the past, but maybe the fact that these murders had happened near him had changed that. He might as well not have paid any attention to it, though, because besides a minor update about ten days after the first story he'd seen on the matter – a tiny article on page seven, saying the police had made no progress with their enquiries – there was no more news.

It was the end of January now. He'd been in Japan for almost a month. He came home after a night out with guys from work in the early hours of the morning, opened a beer, and sat down in front of the TV. He was fully prepared to lie on the couch and watch crappy late-night talk shows until he went to sleep, but he was only beginning to zone out when a noise jolted him out of his daydreams.

There was a laugh track playing on TV, drowning out the set-up of the next joke. Still, he could hear it: what sounded like someone dragging something heavy down the corridor.

He stood up and made his way to the door, balancing against it as he looked out the peephole. He couldn't see anything for a few seconds, but soon something came into view, and his breath caught in his throat as he realised what he was seeing.

The figure was thin, very thin; rotten skin clung to bones, and the remains of a basketball uniform clothed the skeletal figure. Hands tipped in vicious-looking claws clung onto something that Kagami couldn't quite see, dragging it across the floor.

Suddenly, the thing stopped. It's head swivelled on it's bony neck to look Kagami directly in the eye – or it would have, if it hadn't been for the fact that there was a door and a peephole between them. Kagami wanted to look away, to move, but he was frozen in fear. He could only stand there, his red eyes locked with the electric blue ones outside - wide and pale, they were lit with an unearthly glow, the only real source of light in the dim corridor. After what felt like an eternity, it looked away, and resumed dragging whatever it was. Kagami heard the door next door open, the sound of dragging, then the door slammed. There was a thump as whatever was being pulled around was dropped, and then he heard – through the thin wall separating him and the apartment next door – the sound of flesh being torn away from bone, teeth tearing through meat.

Or maybe he was just imagining that. He couldn't tell what was real and what was imaginary now.

Had he really just seen that? He could remember those eyes, wide and blue and _dead_, and he had recognised them. He wasn't used to seeing them set in the face of a corpse, of course, but there was no mistaking them.

Just what the hell was Kuroko Tetsuya…? Kagami felt the tension in his muscles ease and finally he was able to move again. He slumped down against the door, suddenly feeling exhausted. He looked to the clock on the wall: 2:30AM. Hadn't he gotten home just after midnight? Had he been standing there, paralysed with fear and caught up in his own thoughts, for two hours? Maybe he'd fallen asleep and that had all been a nightmare.

He listened for a while. The apartment was silent, and the apartment next door was, too.

"I must be going crazy," he muttered, rubbing his head. He'd stayed up too late, had too much to drink, and started seeing things. That was the only explanation. Kuroko next door was strange and quiet, but he wasn't some kind of monster. Monsters didn't exist.

"Crazy," Kagami repeated. He cradled his head in his hands and fell asleep at his door.

When he woke the next morning, his head was thumping and his body ached from sleeping on the floor. He felt like he was going to throw up and his body protested when he stood up. And he only felt even sicker when he turned on the television to the last thing he wanted to see on the news.

"-we go live to detective Aomine Daiki, at the scene of the crime."

"I already said I didn't want to give a statement, didn't I? Get out of my face."

The man on the screen clearly did not want to be featured in the report. He turned away from the camera, tugging the collar of his jacket up over his face. Even so, Kagami caugh sight of tanned skin and narrowed blue eyes, and a forehead that creased as he scowled.

"But detective, surely the police must have something to say about the crime-"

"Here's your statement: get lost," Aomine snarled, and Kagami's eyebrows raised. So sassy. So spicy.

"But detective-!"

"You are intruding on a crime scene," Aomine said, "Get your damn camera out of here. If you don't leave I'll be forced to…"

Kagami didn't hear the rest of the threat, because the report cut back to the news room. The chirpy news reader listened to something in her ear piece for a few moments then looked back to the camera. "So, to summarise what we know now: a man has gone missing from his home in _xxxx_. There were no signs of struggle in his house, where he was last believed to be, but there was a significant amount of blood and his body has vanished without a trace. The police are remaining tight-lipped on the crime, as you'll have seen. Now, onto the weather for today-"

Kagami stared at the TV. He tried to imagine what the body of an adult man would sound like, being dragged into a stranger's apartment. Blood. Could that kind of thing really be concealed? Surely if – and this was a big if, he reminded himself - a man had been murdered and dragged from one place to another, there would be a trail of evidence? The police could probably follow it back to the building, if they wanted to. So why hadn't that detective just said they knew who had done it? They _did _know who'd done it, right?

Maybe he should phone the police station-

And say what?

"My neighbour's a monster?"

Maybe "my neighbour's a murderer" would work instead. He reached for his phone and began to dial, but something stopped him.

He remembered the eyes that had met his the other night. Had they seen him, in spite of the door between them? If Kuroko knew that he knew he'd done it, wouldn't he try to stop him? Kagami was all for doing the right thing, but he didn't want to endanger himself while doing it. Maybe it was cowardice, but he couldn't bring himself to finish dialling the number. It was Sunday: Kuroko was home, and surely he'd hear him if he phoned.

He placed the phone back on the receiver. Tomorrow was Monday. Kuroko would be at work, and he'd have the day off. He'd go to the police station himself and tell them what he knew in person.

It _seemed_ like a good plan.

The police station was busy when he arrived the next morning, which he supposed was to be expected. A harassed looking secretary spoke to him at the front desk, snapping, "Yes, what is it?"

"I, uh…" Kagami found himself lost for words. He lowered his voice, and said, "I thought I might have some information. About the case that's going on right now. That murder- um, that missing persons thing."

The woman looked at him with narrowed eyes, then said, "One moment, please."

She disappeared into a room behind the desk. Kagami waited, awkwardly, trying not to get in the way of the officers who mulled around the station. He found himself waiting there for so long that he began to doubt the woman was even going to come back, but just as he was about to give up the door slammed open and a figure came out of it.

Even though he hadn't got a good view of the other's face in the news report earlier, Kagami recognised the detective. Aomine looked him up and down and then said, "You got something to tell us?" Kagami nodded, and the bluenette said, "Come with me."

Kagami was a little concerned that he was led to what seemed to be an interrogation room. He was hesitant to sit down behind the desk when Aomine gestured to it, but when it seemed like they wouldn't move along until he did, he took a seat. Aomine didn't sit down but paced up and down on the other side of the desk, and Kagami felt himself getting annoyed. Why was he being treated like a suspect?

"So," Aomine began, "What, are you here to confess to something?"

"No!" Kagami said, shaking his head. "What the hell? I said I had information, didn't I? I've not commited any crimes."

"You're awfully quick to deny it, though," Aomine said. He leant over the table, and said, "You know, 90% of the people who come to us with 'information' were directly involved in the crime they're reporting to us."

"You just made that statistic up," Kagami snapped. "Look, start taking this seriously! My neighbour, Kuroko Tetsuya-"

Aomine brought a fist down on the table. Kagami's eyes widened, and he looked startled as Aomine said, "Stay the hell away from this investigation."

Kagami made to reply, but Aomine cut him off before he'd even got a whole word out.

"It's a bad ideas for civilians to take crimes into their own hands. If you don't back off, I can't guarantee your safety."

"Are you threatening me?" Kagami asked, incredulous. He was not intimidated – it would take more than a twisted cop to intimidate him. Instead he was annoyed, and confused, and he couldn't understand why nobody was listening to him. "Don't you want to solve this fucking crime? Are you really okay with people dying? I'm telling you, my neighbour, Kuroko-"

"If you don't drop this right now, you're gonna end up pissing off more powerful people than me," Aomine ground out. Kagami stared at him, but didn't offer a reply – the other's threat this time didn't seem like it was empty. His words were loaded, and Kagami didn't doubt that there was someone higher up that wouldn't want this information getting out. But…

But what did it matter? Justice was justice. Someone had died, and the police weren't going to do anything.

"I understand," Kagami said, finally breaking the silence, "I'll forget all about it. You won't hear from me again."

"I appreciate it," Aomine said, with a cool smile, "Then we'll both forget this meeting ever happened, and you'll forget all about your neighbour, Kuroko Tetsuya, right?"

"Right."

Back at home, Kagami stood in front of the door of apartment 2B. Maybe if he was smarter, he thought, he would have taken Aomine's advice seriously, but he wasn't smart. Bakagami. In his hands he held a heavy fire-axe, borrowed from the station.

He raised it above his head, then hesitated – what if he was wrong? What if, somehow, he was completely wrong about all this? What if he got into the apartment, and it was completely normal? He'd be charged for breaking and entering, for sure. He'd probably lose his job and get community service, at the very least. And even if he was right, he wasn't sure what good it would do, besides giving him the satisfaction of knowing he wasn't completely crazy. He tried not to think too hard about it and brought the axe down. The head knocked a strip of wood out of the door and the handle vibrated in his hand, and he brought the axe up over his head again before bringing it crashing down, over and over again until there wasn't a door in front of him.

He was panting by the time he was finished, and then he dropped the axe at his feet, looking into the apartment. He took a deep breath, steeled himself, and stepped inside.

**a/n:** dun dun duuun! what will kagami find inside kuroko's apartment, minna-chans? is kuroko really a monster, or is kagami just crazy? （・◇・） you'll just have to tune in next time to find out! thank you for all of your faves and follows, your support means a lot to me! (ღ˘⌣˘ღ) next update should be at the weekend, so i'll see you all in chapter three, where some mysteries will be solved and even more will open up d=(´▽｀)=b !


	3. Chapter 3

Without hesitating, Kagami stepped in.

The apartment looked normal enough. It more or less mirrored his own: small rooms, drab beige walls, and basic furniture. Unlike his own, though, it felt weirdly empty. Kagami was no interior designer, but in the month or so he'd been in his apartment, it had acquired little personal touches and a sense of individuality that just came from… well, being lived in. Kuroko's apartment, on the other hand, looked like his had the day he'd moved in – except the other had apparently been staying there for even longer than he had.

Kagami knew he had to move quickly. Nobody seemed to have noticed the noise of him breaking into the apartment, but it wouldn't be long until someone wandered past and saw the axe and pieces of the door lying there. Maybe he could have been subtler about the whole thing, but Kagami had never been a very subtle person.

He couldn't find anything incriminating in the living room/kitchen, so he moved into the bedroom. Again, it looked more or less like the bedroom in his own apartment… well, except for the bulky freezer that took up most of the space in the room. Kagami stepped in and ran his hand along the white lid – it was big, about six feet long, and certainly _suspicious_. Kagami didn't have to be a cop to know that this was not something a NORMAL person had in their bedroom. There wasn't even room for a bed with it in there! More like a freezerroom, am I right?!

Kagami's hand moved to grip the handle of the freezer. If he opened it, he'd be privy to whatever knowledge lay beneath it, and there was no way he could undo his action of opening it… but then, he already knew what was inside, didn't he?

He threw the lid open.

He wanted to be sick.

There was a body inside the freezer. Male, middle aged, like all the news reports had said. The chest was gaping open, flesh and muscle torn away and the ribs cracked to open up the cavity. The heart was missing, and so was one lung.

"Th-this is so fuckin' messed up," Kagami breathed, but he couldn't bring himself to look away. Once again he found himself frozen, the horror of what he was seeing really dawning on him.

He closed the lid carefully. He wanted to forget he'd seen the body lying there, blood staining the bed of ice it lay on, no longer a man but a corpse.

"Kagami-kun."

"Oi, Kuroko," Kagami muttered. He didn't turn to face the other. He could feel cold breath right on his neck or maybe that was his imagination he didn't know "What the hell is going on?"

"I didn't kill him," came the reply.

"You didn't…" Kagami was afraid to turn around, because he didn't know what he'd see if he did. Finally he did, though, and he saw blue hair, blue eyes, white skin. A normal person, but the sight didn't comfort him. "You expect me to believe that? I saw you- or I saw a thing that looked like you-"

"You saw me," Kuroko murmured. He leant against the freezer, looking thoughtful as he said, "I thought you had, the other night. And when we first met- I scared you, didn't I? You saw through my disguise. I think you're sensitive to that kind of thing, Kagami-kun."

"_Sensitive_?" Kagami snapped. He didn't understand anything that was happening, and frankly, it was pissing him off. "And stop calling me –kun! You're what, twenty?"

"Do I look that young?" Kuroko asked, and Kagami felt foolish. Of course, Kuroko looked younger than him, but he had no idea how old the other even was. As though answering the question now on Kagami's mind, Kuroko said, "I'm thirty. Thirty one, I guess, at the end of the month, though I haven't celebrated my birthday in years."

"I still don't get it," Kagami muttered, "You say you didn't kill him, but if you didn't, what did?"

"Not what. Who," Kuroko said, "It was… a friend of mine."

"Aomine?"

Kuroko looked surprised. "Aomine-kun? No- not him."

"But he's involved," Kagami said. "He seemed awfully defensive when I went to-"

He trailed off, and Kuroko raised an eyebrow and looked at him with that blank stare. "You went to report me?"

For a split second, Kagami felt guilty, but then he realised how ridiculous that was. "Yeah, I did! And I should go back and report you again for real, now that I've seen what you're hiding in here-" He trailed off, because Kuroko just looked so _sad._

"I know I must disgust you, Kagami-kun," he murmured. "But trust me, nobody can hate me as much as I hate myself. This is not a life I chose to live. It's a curse, but it's one I can't escape from."

"So what are you?" Kagami asked, "I still don't get it."

"I guess… maybe I'm something close to a vampire?"

"So you drink blood and hate garlic?"

"Okay, maybe not a vampire," Kuroko muttered. He seemed thoughtful, then said, "All I know is that I'm dead, and I get horrible cravings for human flesh."

"Oh," Kagami said, "So you're more like a zombie."

Kuroko stared at him for a few seconds, then smiled a little weakly. "If that was the case, then at least you wouldn't have anything to worry about, Kagami-kun."

Kagami snorted, though he didn't know what _that_ was meant to mean. Kuroko stared at him, long and hard, before he said, "Are you still going to tell the police about this?"

"Of course," Kagami nodded. He didn't want to look at Kuroko. "Isn't that what any normal person would do?"

Kuroko was quiet, and finally Kagami just said, "I should go."

He was surprised that Kuroko didn't try to stop him as he left the apartment. When the other did call out to him, it was in a humourless tone.

"You owe me a door."

"Kagami-kun."

Kagami was asleep. Or in bed, at least. He didn't know if he was still asleep or if he was awake. Was he dreaming?

"Don't open your eyes. It's dark and I look very gross."

Kagami kept his eyes closed. His bedroom felt very cold, and he felt a weight on the end of his bed as someone sat down on it. Very light, as though he wasn't even there, but even if Kuroko didn't weigh anything at all Kagami would still be able to sense his presence.

"In the morning, I think I'll be gone. It's sad, but I think I have to leave the city. I have to go very far away and maybe terrorize a village by eating their corpses while they wait to be cremated. That was a joke. I don't want to scare anyone, but I guess what I am defies people's views of what's right and good in the world, so it can't be helped.

"Can you listen to me for a while though, Kagami-kun? I am… very tired. I wish this could all end. I wish I could die, but I already died and that didn't end it, so now I'm at a loss. I think I'm cursed to live this way to the end of my days. Even if someone tore me apart limb from limb and burnt my body I think I'd still be alive, that my consciousness would be trapped in the ashes and I'd be forced to spend the rest of my days like that. Until the end of the world.

"But maybe that would be better than how I'm living now. It's horrible, Kagami-kun. I wish I could stop, but if I try to resist my cravings I go crazy with hunger, and when I lose my mind like that I'm afraid I'll hurt someone to get my fix – that I'll actually kill. I've never killed anyone before. It's bad enough the way it is. I feel repulsed as I tear flesh away from bone and stuff it in my mouth, but I do it anyway, because that's what my life has become. Something in me forces me to seek out corpses and eat their fat and muscle and absorb whatever life is left in them.

"It doesn't even taste good. Think of the worst meal you've ever eaten, then imagine it being left to rot for three weeks, and then imagine having to eat it, and even though you hate it and it makes you feel sick to your stomach you know you'll feel even worse if you don't eat it. I'm constantly starving. I can't choke down enough corpse to ever really feel full." Kuroko paused. His voice had gotten tighter and his words had flowed together until they were almost incomprehensible towards the end, and he seemed to take a moment to calm himself before he said, "I'm sorry, Kagami-kun. This isn't exactly the most pleasant subject to talk about so late at night. I hope I don't give you nightmares. I'm rambling, aren't I?"

Kagami cracked his eyes open. His own red ones met glowing blue ones and he felt his body freeze up, so he wasn't able to move or cry out even if he wanted to. Kuroko stared back at him, placidly.

"I told you, you shouldn't open your eyes," he said. Kagami wondered how he could speak when his lips were rotten away, how he could make sound when his neck had withered away to nothing but a yellow spine. How could his neck even support his head, anyway? Everything about him denied logic.

"Basket…" Kagami's throat felt hoarse, his lips dry. Even so, he managed to croak, "Basketball…?"

"Are you asking why I'm wearing a basketball uniform?" Kuroko asked. Kagami managed to nod, just barely, and the other looked down at his skeletal body, plucking the grubby white material that clothed him. "Well, I guess that's because I died in it."

Kuroko stood up. Kagami could barely make out the faded letters on the uniform in the dim light.

**TEIKO**

**15**

"I kind of broke your door getting in here. I'm sorry, Kagami-kun. But at least now we're even on that front."

Kuroko vanished. Kagami was exhausted. He repeated the words in his mind: Teiko, number 15. After a while he fell asleep, and there was a fortunate lack of nightmares. He wondered if he didn't have any because he'd somehow been sucked into one in his waking life.

**a/n:** hey there minna-chans! if you get two notifications for this chapter, it's because i was really silly and uploaded it before i'd added in the author's note. (´･_･`) how could i do that!? talking to you all is the highlight of my day! anyway, i hope you all had a great weekend! now about this chapter - kuroko's kind of a creep, right? but that doesn't automatically make him a bad guy, does it? hmm... ( ?´_ゝ｀) next chapter we'll find out a little more about his past, and maybe meet some more people from it...! exciting, isn't it? ヾ(＠゜▽゜＠）ノ

if you're curious about what kuroko REALLY is (ie: not a zombie) then you can check out this link! [slash] WwlkcP ... although i'm taking some... creative liberty with this story. (×_×;）

thanks for all your faves, follows and reviews! your support is an endless source of inspiration for me, so i'll see you later this week in chapter four! (wait, i finished chapter three already? what the heck!)


	4. Chapter 4

"Kagami-san? Kagami-san?"

The high voice of his landlady woke Kagami up. He rolled over and checked the clock – 9:38AM – and let out a groan. He'd had a long lie, technically, but he still felt exhausted. He was finding that he felt less and less well rested lately. As he heard another "Kagami-san!" he finally hauled himself out of bed and, pulling on a pair of pants, made his way to the door.

It was broken. It seemed to have been forced open – the lock was ruined, and the sliding chain lock hung off it, having been torn away from the doorframe. What a mess – but he supposed, compared to the splinters he'd reduced Kuroko's door to, he had it coming.

"Thank goodness you're awake," his landlady said. "Can I come in?"

He nodded, and pulled the door open. His landlady, Satou Noriko, was a pleasant woman – she didn't much care what her tenants did, so long as they didn't damage the property, and she was usually fairly laid back. Today, however, she seemed incredibly stressed.

"Thank goodness you're alright! You know, some maniac broke into 2B last night? With an axe? Seems like they tried to get in here too, but then something put them off when they got in – they probably saw you looking all big and scary and decided they'd rather now risk it." His landlady hugged her arms nervously, looking around. "Poor Kuroko-kun, though! I don't know if they took anything, but he came to me first thing this morning to say he couldn't live here after something like that happened. He's moving his things out today, I hear. I wonder where he'll go – he didn't say he had a place to stay…"

"Kuroko's gone?"

"What are you sounding so happy about?" She said, seemingly aghast, and he hadn't realised quite how relieved he'd seemed until he'd been called out on it. "It's such a shame this happened to Kuroko-kun. And he was such a nice boy, too."

"Did he say where he was going?" Kagami asked, not sure why he wanted to know. Shouldn't he be happy that Kuroko was out of his life, possibly for good?

"He said he had a friend he could stay with until he found somewhere new," Noriko said, in a voice that clearly asked 'but why do you care?', and Kagami couldn't answer it. He stayed quiet, and she said, "Don't go back to sleep, Kagami-san. No doubt the police will want to talk to you after they're done looking over Kuroko-kun's apartment."

"The police?"

If Kagami looked and sounded as startled as he felt, the landlady didn't seem to notice. She only nodded before turning and leaving with no real goodbye, closing the broken door behind her as best she could. Kagami frowned. The police were coming…? If that was the case, then wouldn't they find the body, and then wouldn't they have to investigate? He'd probably be pulled into the mess as a witness or even a suspect, he thought, but he decided not to dwell on that too much. Instead, he decided to do his laundry.

He was taking a bundle of clothes out of the machine when there was a knock at the door. He opened to it Detective Aomine Daiki, who bumped against his shoulder as he stepped into the apartment uninvited.

"I'd like a moment of your time, Kagami Taiga," he said.

Kagami felt his jaw clench. "Shouldn't you be looking for your friend?"

"I don't know what you mean," Aomine said. "If you mean Kuroko Tetsuya, then he's gotten in touch with us to give us his consent to search his apartment for clues, but he's having his personal effects moved out this afternoon. Until then I'll handle the investigation personally."

"So you just plan on sweeping the fact that he's responsible for these killings under the rug?"

"I would, if he actually was involved in any of the murders," Aomine said. He sounded like he couldn't care less about their conversation, which only made Kagami angrier. "But as it is, Tetsu's only ever interacted with these people after they were dead. He's not the killer – he's the clean-up crew."

"I don't get why you're telling me this."

"It's not like you can do anything with the information," Aomine shrugged. "And I'll tell you something else – you need to back off. You've really pissed off the 'friend' Tetsu's staying with by getting involved."

Kagami was about to question just who the hell this friend was, exactly, but a voice cut him off as his front door was flung open with a bang.

"Dai-chan!" The woman who appeared at the door crossed her arms over her chest (which there was plenty of, Kagami couldn't help but notice, after which he felt more than a little lecherous) and aimed a practiced glare at Aomine. Kagami raised an eyebrow – his boss? But that didn't seem right, because he was pretty sure that while detectives didn't exactly have a dress code, they typically didn't dress for work in shorts and crop tops, and he wondered how she hadn't died of exposure yet, in spite of the bulky parka she wore over them. She looked to Kagami, then back to Aomine, and said, "You're not trying to look cool in front of that guy, are you? I asked at the station and they said you were out doing work, but they gave me the address, so here's your lunch."

"If I'd wanted the lunch I would've taken it," Aomine snapped, but he caught the box that was thrown at him anyway, "Honestly, I'd find better food if I went dumpster diving-"

"Don't be a jerk!" She snapped, and Aomine didn't manage to catch the flask of tea that hut him square in the chest. He rubbed the spot and picked it up from the ground, looking at her as she said, "Honestly, I get up extra early to make it for you before you go to work. The least you could do is take it." She paused, before looking to Kagami and, as though remembering her manners, produced a business card and held it out. "Sorry for intruding. My name is Momoi Satsuki – I work at IG, but I'm the detective's childhood friend and his current caretaker. He's been so wrapped up in work lately that if I don't run after him he forgets to eat, so of course I had to bring something along for him."

Kagami looked to Aomine. The look on his face seemed to say, _Childhood friend? Really?_

_Fuck off, _Aomine's returned.

"So if you're a childhood friend, Momoi-san," Kagami said, taking the card and glancing over it without really reading it, "Does that mean you know Kuroko too?"

Momoi seemed to freeze, staring at him with a look on her face that read halfway between surprised and saddened.

Kagami wasn't stupid: he'd already put together that Aomine and Kuroko had a history, and he had surmised from looking at Aomine's toned body (not that he was checking out his hot bod or anything, heavens no) that it wasn't unfeasible that the other played basketball too. Maybe they'd been on the same team, even. And if Momoi was a childhood friend of Aomine's, then that meant they'd been friends when Aomine and Kuroko had known each other, and that meant there was a chance that she'd known Kuroko.

Kagami wasn't stupid, and because of that he knew the answer before she replied. Even without the look of anger that had flashed over Aomine's face as he'd asked the question, the tears that were threatening to escape from Momoi's eyes were all the confirmation he needed.

"I… I did know Tetsu-kun. I was very fond of him," she said, running a hand through her long, pink hair nervously. "He was very kind- quiet, but sweet. When he went missing, I…" she sniffed and turned away, wiping the tears that had escaped and slid down her cheeks. "If I hadn't- he'd still be here-"

"Oi, it wasn't your fault," Aomine said, sounding surprisingly gentle.

Momoi shook her head. "No, it was! I organised the trip, everyone was against it and _I _did it-"

She started to cry in a quiet, dignified way. Kagami didn't know what to say. Aomine sighed, and made his way over to the kitchen counter, leaning against it as he opened the boxed lunch. Kagami narrowed his eyes. Asshole - he was going to _eat _at a time like this?

From what Kagami could see, it didn't look appetizing. It's contents were mixed from Momoi's delivery method, and the vegetables looked overcooked and the rice was more black than white. Aomine chewed bravely though, and he said, "You know Momoi, this isn't too bad."

She ignored him. He took another mouthful, made a pained expression as he swallowed which fortunately she couldn't see with her head in her hands, and said, "I really think you're getting better at cooking the rice."

"Idiot!" She sobbed, "It burnt and stuck to the bottom of the pot and I had to scrape it out!"

"Some people consider that a delicacy, you know."

"You're just trying to make me feel better."

"You think I'd suffer through one of your bentos just to make you feel better?"

She looked up, her eyes dry now but red and puffy, mascara smudged around them. She managed a weak smile, even though her lips were still trembling, and muttered a fond, "Idiot."

Kagami was silent, and he wondered how he could ask them to get the hell out of his apartment without making things even more awkward than they already were. Aomine set the box down on the counter and opened the flask, tipping it back as he drank from it. He seemed content to end the conversation there and then. Momoi, on the other hand, still seemed deep in thought.

"But then… Tetsu-kun was always 'missing', wasn't he?" She said quietly. "Nobody ever said that he was…"

She trailed off. Aomine wiped his lips with the back of his hand and looked to her.

"Satsuki…"

"Could it be that you've found him? Or you think you've found a new lead?" She asked, her eyes burning with fresh determination. "Is that why you've been working late so often lately?"

"Don't be stupid," Aomine snapped, "Why would a homicide detective in Tokyo be handling a missing persons case from Yuzawa? Of course that's not the case I'm working on."

Momoi seemed crushed. She managed a nod and looked back to the ground, and Aomine sighed and straightened up.

"You should get back to work. I'll walk you there," he said, a hand moving to rest on her shoulder as he guided her towards the door. He seemed to have lost his motivation to hassle Kagami any more – or maybe he just didn't want to do it in front of Momoi – but as he left he cast a glance over his shoulder.

"Don't get yourself into any trouble."

With that they were out, and Kagami sighed as the door shut behind them. He couldn't forget how Momoi looked as she'd mourned her friend, cried for someone she probably thought was dead- someone who _was_ dead. He felt sick. A truck pulled up outside, and he hung his laundry out to dry as movers carried a freezer out of Kuroko's apartment.

a/n: hi there minna-chans! first off, i'm sorry for how long this chapter took me. hopefully i'll update a little more steadily soon! (╯_╰) thank you for your continued support! i hope you all enjoyed this chapter. i'm not too confident at writing any of the characters yet, since this is my first fic for the fandom, but i really enjoy aomine and momoi's friendship (/relationship? oo) so i'm hoping to explore that! (｀・ω・´)" i think they're pretty cute. so now kuroko is gone - but for how long!? will kagami ever see him again!? does kagami ever finish doing his laundry!? find out next time in the next exciting chapter of hungry ghosts! (disclaimer: chapter may not actually be that exciting.)


	5. Chapter 5

Apartment 2B lay empty for a week after Kuroko left. It didn't really make much difference to Kagami, but he got so used to the silence and not meeting anyone in their hall that, when he found himself confronted by a stranger, he was quite surprised.

The man seemed to be a few years older than him, with dark hair cropped close to his head and blue eyes.

"Oh, hello," the stranger said, "I'm one of the new tenants in 2B. You're Kagami-san, right?"

"Yeah. How'd you know?" Kagami asked.

He wondered if the landlady had said anything about him – so of course he felt stupid when, after a pause, the reply was, "It says it on your name plate."

"Oh, right," Kagami said, glancing over his shoulder to the nameplate that hung outside his door. He barely even registered the things, but he supposed that came from living in America for so long. He watched as the man took out his own nameplate, and slid it into the holder that was outside his door.

_Kasamatsu & Kise_

"So which one are you?" Kagami asked, after struggling for a moment to read the names.

"Oh- I'm Kasamatsu. Kasamatsu Yukio."

"Kise your girl?" Kagami asked, and he was frustrated when the other snorted. What, that wasn't a sensible question?

"No, he's… Ryota's-"

"Oh, say no more," Kagami shook his head, holding up his hands. In this economy, who could blame two guys for renting an apartment together? He completely understood. What he didn't understand was the incredulous look Kasamatsu gave him. "Still, it's kinda small for two guys-"

"I'm sure we'll manage," Kasamatsu replied, a little tersely. Then he peered around Kagami's shoulder and said, "Oh, here he comes now."

"Senpai!"

A blonde man was striding along the corridor, dragging a familiar face behind them. As they drew closer, Momoi smiled to Kagami. "Oh, Kagami-san, it's nice to see you."

"Eh, Momoi – how do you know our neighbours before us? That's not fair." The blonde said with a grin, nudging her in the side. Already, Kagami didn't like the look of the guy – he was too pretty, too sparkly… and Kagami could tell he'd shatter the peace that he'd gotten used to. His new neighbour smiled enigmatically and turned to face him, "Hi, I'm Kise Ryota."

Kise was a pretty boy, there was no doubt about it, but the right side of this face was scarred, his eye closed over an empty socket and white lines tracing over his cheek. Had he been cut? Kagami cleared his throat and averted his eyes, embarrassed as he caught himself staring, "Um, Kagami Taiga, pleasure to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too," Kise said. There was a brief pause, and he said, "Momoi was coming in for a drink. Do you want to join us, Kagami-san? It'd be good to get to know our neighbours."

Kagami hesitated. He didn't feel like doing anything – he had work tomorrow, but it seemed rude to decline an invitation from his new neighbour. "Sure, I'll come. Let me shower first and then I'll come over."

He made his way into the apartment, shrugging off his work clothes before stepping into the shower. Even over the noise of the running water, he could hear music in the apartment next door and, over that, someone laughing loudly – he barely knew the man, but he could tell it was Kise.

Kise… how had that guy got those scars, anyway? He and Momoi seemed close – could he have something to do with Kuroko, too?

What a tangled web these basketball players weave, he thought, and he felt incredibly proud of himself for having such a poetic thought. He turned off the shower and stepped out, dressing before checking his fridge. Everything in there was leftovers, but he remembered his mother taking food to new neighbours when he'd been a kid, so he figured it was polite.

It was just leftovers, but Kise looked thrilled at the dish of fried rice and curry and threw it in the microwave immediately. Kasamatsu watched, a little reproachfully.

"You didn't have to bring anything," he said, "We're not staying here long. Only for a week or two, until some repairs in our house are finished."

"Well… let's try and get along while you're staying here," Kagami said, and he bowed, and then felt silly. Being polite didn't suit him, and the amused smile on Momoi's face made that clear.

"When I heard Kise-chan and Kasamatsu were looking for a place to stay, I remembered here, and the landlady seemed okay with renting it out again, even though… well, even though it got broken into a few weeks ago." Kise looked away from his food in the microwave, slightly alarmed, and Momoi added, "It was an isolated incident, though! It won't happen again, right, Kagami?"

"Right," Kagami said, with some certainty. They didn't need to know that he could be certain because he was the one who'd broken in in the first place.

The microwave continued to hum, and they lapsed into idle conversation. What did Kagami do? He was a firefighter. Wow! (Momoi exclaimed) That must be dangerous. Isn't it scary? Not really, you get used to it. Momoi laughed and made a comment about his muscles. Kise squeezed them, and Kasamatsu clipped him around the ear. Idiot. What did Kasamatsu do? "I'm a sound technician." Radio? Music. Momoi helped run a gym, and gracefully took Kagami's compliments about how it was impressive for her to run a business at her age, which was followed by a comment from Kise about how she wasn't as young as she looked, which was followed by another hit to the back of his head, from Momoi this time. "I'm a housewife!" Kise laughs, and Kasamatsu rolls his eyes, and Kagami smiles along dumbly. What good friends they must be, for Kasamatsu to let the blonde mooch off him like that.

They talk about other things – where they grew up, which leads to them talking about Kagami living in America, which leads to Kise asking, "You ever play basketball?"

"A friend got me into it when we were kids, but when he moved back to Japan I lost interest in it," he replied with a shrug. "Did you play?"

"Still do, sometimes," Kise shrugged. He paused, before saying, "So… I heard you asked about Kurokocchi?"

There was a definite change in the mood of the room. Momoi averted her eyes. Kasamatsu seemed uncomfortable – annoyed, even - by the direction the conversation had taken, and he excused himself. It was Momoi that spoke first.

"He's the only one you still call by that stupid nickname, Kise."

"Well, that's because Kurokocchi is still Kurokocchi," Kise said, sounding a little sadly. But he seemed confused as he said, "But what I don't understand is how you knew him, Kagami."

Kagami was quiet. He couldn't bring himself to lie, but at the same time there wasn't really a way to say "I know him because he's undead and was staying in this apartment barely a week ago". Kise didn't seem to question the silence – it was probably painful for him to talk about, too. After a few moments, though, he said, "Want to see some videos of Kurokocchi in action?"

"You have them?" Momoi said, sounding surprised.

"Yeah- well, I mean, I don't have the tapes with me physically, but I uploaded them online." Momoi looked at him a little oddly. "Don't give me that look! Some people are really interested in that kind of thing, you know, especially with how good we were."

"I feel like most of the hits you get will be people who want to ogle at how far the team fell after the accident, Kise," Momoi said, sounding a little bitter. Kise ignored her, turning on his laptop and typing in a website address before a site appeared.

Kagami read the title. GENERATION OF MIRACLES OFFICIAL HOMEPAGE.

"That's a bit self-absorbed, isn't it?" He said, before he could stop himself.

"Hey hey, no need to be mean," Kise whined, moving to the videos section of the site. "That's what people really called us!"

Momoi frowned. "Still, Kise, a whole website about us is a little masturbatory, don't you think?"

"So mean, Momoi! And so crude," Kise pouted, before bringing up a video, "Ah, okay, look! Here it is."

Kagami silently questioned what he was seeing, and Momoi provided an answer.

"Oh, I remember this match," she said, leaning over Kise's shoulder to get a better view of the screen. "They were pretty strong, but we still crushed them."

"That's because Akashi told Murasakibara to use his full strength," Kise nodded, before sounding a little dejected as he added, "I barely got to touch the ball when he was on."

"Where's Kuroko?" Kagami asked. The rest of the team was impressive, no doubt, but there was only one person he was interested in seeing, and he couldn't find the shorter man amongst the talent that seemed to shine on the court. Kise frowned, golden eyes narrowed and scanning the video.

"Oh… there!" He said, pausing the video. The image was a little blurry, but Kagami could make out a figure behind the guy currently holding the ball, some blue hair just barely able to be seen over the his shoulder, a sliver of face and torso visible around him. "Watch carefully," Kise said, and hit play again.

Kagami didn't really have time to register how the ball shot out of the guy's possession mid-dribble, and the camera swung around just in time to see a dark-skinned boy (Aomine?, Kagami wondered) catch it and toss it into the hoop in an unbelievably flashy dunk. If basketball was won based on style points, Teikou would have won then and there, but the match continued, and they scored another fifty points before it ended, give or take a few. Kagami was in awe – but what surprised him most was the still the video ended on: the people in the forefront of the frame were the red and green haired players Kagami had not recognised, but in the background was Kuroko.

"He looks really happy, doesn't he?" He said. There was… nothing like a smile on Kuroko's face, but Kise seemed to understand what he meant.

"I guess he does. He wasn't the most emotive guy, but you could tell he loved basketball," he said, running a hand through his hair. "What happened… it really sucked."

Kagami got the sense that 'it really sucked' didn't quite capture the full weight of the situation. He didn't know if he wanted to know, but… he couldn't help but ask.

"What did happen?"

Kise didn't answer. To his surprise, Momoi was the one who spoke.

"I'd… we'd planned a ski trip to the mountains during winter break. None of us were very good at skiing, but the resort was doing a deal for students, and it seemed like fun. I thought it'd help bring the team closer together." She seemed to be having a hard time talking, but Kagami didn't prod at her to explain faster. He sat, listening to the gaps between her sentences as she composed herself. "The trip went well, but on the way back- the bus got into an accident. We were coming down the mountain, and it went off."

"It went off?"

"The side. Down a cliff."

Kagami looked alarmed, and Momoi smiled. "Not a big one. Apparently it only dropped fifteen feet… I say 'only', but when you're falling down that far, it seems like you're tumbling into a bottomless pit. The driver died on impact, and very few of us got away unscathed, but there weren't any fatalities besides him."

"Except for…" Kise began, but Momoi cut him off.

"Tetsu-kun is missing, not dead."

Kise didn't argue.

"Is that how you got…" Kagami asked, motioning to the right side of his own face. Kise smiled weakly.

"Yeah. I was a model, you know? That stupid accident kind of ruined the future I had planned out. Even with a bunch of reconstructive surgery, this is as good as it's gonna look." He shrugged, before saying, "But I shouldn't be moping. I got off easy. I'm here, and I'm alive- we're all alive. That's reason to be happy, right?"

In spite of Kise's cheery tone, neither he nor Momoi seemed very happy.

The door opened, and Kasamatsu raised an eyebrow at the gloomy expressions on their faces, before holding up the bag of liquor he'd went to the store for. "Not a moment too soon," Kise laughed.

xxxx

Kagami left Kasamatsu and Kise's apartment feeling pleasantly buzzed. He hadn't drank a lot – he had work tomorrow, after all – but he was drunk enough and nostalgiac enough that he decided it was a good time to take a walk. There was a street court a little bit away, and while he didn't own a basketball, he thought he could at least take a trip down memory lane.

It was a mild night. Winter was finally giving way into spring, and while it was late, it didn't feel cold. He didn't even need a jacket. Standing in the court, Kagami felt at one with the universe. He felt like he could do anything.

He took a running jump at the net, leaping up and shooting an imaginary ball. If he'd had a basketball in his hand, it would have been a TOTALLY SWEET dunk.

Kagami landed, and he then he jumped again when he heard a voice.

"Very impressive."

The hairs on the back of his neck rose. What, was he being stalked?

He said, "Kuroko."

"Kagami-kun," Kuroko greeted him, pleasantly, as if Kagami had no idea that he was an unholy creature of the night, as though Kagami didn't even realise he looked like something out of a horror movie right now, as though he'd never broken Kagami's door.

"Why are you here?"

It was a coincidence, Kagami thought. It was a coincidence, and Kuroko wasn't dangerous. He tried to tell himself that, but at the same time he couldn't help but feel nervous.

"My friend lives in the city," Kuroko replied, "It's not like I went far. Still, I didn't expect to see you here, Kagami-kun, much less to see you do a totally sweet dunk. You play basketball?"

"Not anymore."

"You have a lot of talent," Kuroko said. "You remind me of Aomine-kun."

"Don't compare me to him!" Kagami snapped, and he heard Kuroko laugh, but it was a humourless noise. Kagami hesitated, then said, "Kuroko…"

"Yes, Kagami-kun?"

"What do you look like right now?"

Kuroko hesitated before he answered. "I look like what I am. So a corpse."

"I see." Kagami said. Then, slowly, he turned on his heel.

Kuroko's blue eyes burnt into his skull. He looked as grotesque as Kagami remembered – more so, infact, now that Kagami saw him under the lights that illuminated the court. Kagami's muscles felt stiff, and his mouth felt dry, but he couldn't let himself freeze up. He refused to be frightened anymore.

"I met Kise tonight. And Momoi last week."

"Kise-kun and Momoi-san?" Kuroko repeated. He sounded surprised, but his expression remained the same. Unsurprising, considering there was hardly any of his face left on his skull.

"It seems like you guys were a good team."

"I suppose," Kuroko murmured, but he sounded unconvinced and almost melancholy. "By the time we took that trip, things were a little tense between us all."

Kagami nodded. He could understand that, with some of the characters that seemed to be on that team… but at the same time, he couldn't help but wonder…

"Kuroko, why do you think you are the way you are?" Kuroko was silent, and Kagami probed, "There are people who think that ghosts end up trapped on Earth because they have unfinished business."

"You'd have to argue that I'm a ghost at all firstly, if you were going to propose that theory," Kuroko said, before he continued, with a hint of dark amusement in his voice, "But you think I'm cursed like this because of basketball, Kagami-kun? That seems unlikely, and it'd take a cruel god to punish me like that just because I had some disagreements with my team mates, wouldn't it?"

"Even so," Kagammi said, "It might be a possibility."

"It might be," Kuroko conceded. He seemed thoughtful. "So, Kagami-kun, if I did have unfinished business, would you help me resolve it?"

"Why the hell would I do that?"

"Aren't we friends?"

Kagami gaped at Kuroko, who only stared back blankly. After a moment, he said, "Well, maybe not friends, but you're look straight at me and you've not frozen up. Not even Aomine-kun can do that. Are you not afraid of me anymore?"

"I… you freak me the hell out, but I don't think I'm afraid of you," Kagami answered, before stammering, "H-hey, who said I was afraid of you in the first place? Don't go making up stupid ideas!"

Kuroko didn't reply. Kagami blushed a little.

"Maybe… I'll help you…"

"What was that?"

"I'll help you." Kagami rubbed the back of his neck, and shifted awkwardly, "If there's anything I can do…"

"I didn't hear you, Kagami-kun. Once more, a little louder?"

"Get lost," Kagami snapped, his voice raised, but he didn't really seem angry. "I said I'd help you! Hear it that time? I'm gonna help you! You're just gonna keep showing up if I don't, and I'm sick of your ugly face!"

Kagami could have sworn Kuroko looked happy. Somehow.

"Thank you."

**a/n: **heeeey minna-chans! so, some more faces from the past show up! and i wonder how kagami's planning to resolve kuroko's unfinished business? next chapter should be uploaded at the beginning of next week! thanks very much for reading and if you faved/followed/reviewed! i hope you enjoyed this chapter. see ya!


	6. Chapter 6

Kagami woke up the next morning with a hangover. The previous night came back to him in chunks – he remembered hanging out with the new neighbours, then taking a walk, then- oh. Meeting up with Kuroko. Saying he'd help him. Shit, what had he been _thinking_? He burrowed his face in his pillow and wished he could take back everything he'd said the night before, but it was too late for that. Oh well, he'd done worse after drinking.

"Unfinished business, huh?" he murmured, rolling onto his back and staring at the ceiling. He'd been all bravado, talking like he knew what was going on, but what did that even _mean_? Maybe Kuroko's unfinished business was that his team had never won whatever goal they'd been chasing. Or maybe his biggest regret was that his team had become broken, that they'd lost the spark of camaraderie that had driven them to success. Or maybe… maybe this was completely wrong, and no matter how many regrets of Kuroko's Kagami helped resolve, there'd be no saving him. Maybe this really was a curse that would last for as long as Kuroko lived… if you really could call it living.

"Well… where to from here?"

He closed his eyes. It was still early, and he had to force himself out of bed and drag himself into work and hope that there were no emergencies that would come up. Fighting fires with a pounding headache was the worst. Maybe he could get the chief to let him do desk work, or chores around the station all day.

He met Kasamatsu coming out of his apartment, who seemed even more tired than him.

"Yo," he mumbled, "Heading to work?"

Kagami nodded. "Yeah. Are you going towards the station?"

"Hm. I'll walk you there."

Kasamatsu was much less vocal than Kise, which Kagami appreciated. Still, as they walked, the shorted man brought up a surprising subject.

"Don't talk about Kuroko to Kise anymore."

Kagami looked at him, a little mystified. How was he meant to help Kuroko when everyone was telling him to pretend he didn't exist?

"Kise… he misses that guy a lot. And it's not like I'm jealous- I mean… okay, I'm a little jealous. Is that totally pathetic? Being jealous of a kid that's been dead for fifteen years?" Kagami was quiet. Mostly, he was wondering what Kuroko had to be jealous of, but Kasamatsu took that as a sign that he was listening and continued. "Kise and I went to high school together. He was a freshman when I was a senior, but I knew about him since he enrolled, because none of the girls could shut up about him, but I never took much interest in him. Then my homeroom teacher wanted to talk to me, and said that I should try talking to him. Back then… he was really quiet. I mean, he'd been in an accident and had missed the last few months of middle school due to being hospitalised, but on top of all that, people didn't look at him and see this cool, confident kid anymore. They saw a boy who'd been hurt, and they felt sympathy for him instead of admiration. That kind of change would be hard for anyone, but it was really rough on Kise. I mean, he'd been a model before that, after all."

Kagami didn't say anything. He wasn't good at talking to people about this kind of stuff! Why had he suddenly become someone that everyone poured their soul out to? Kasamatsu continued.

"Anyway, my homeroom teacher asked me to invite Kise to practice one day – oh, I was captain of the basketball team, by the way. I didn't think it was a good idea. I knew he'd played basketball, but I didn't really know what team he'd come from, and I thought it would be crude to ask him to join the team after he'd been in an accident like that and had only just got out of hospital for it. But then… well, he was always alone. It seemed like he purposefully avoided talking to people. So I asked him to join.

"He actually came along to practice. It was surprising. But he didn't play like someone who'd been a member of Teikou middle school's legendary basketball club. He wasn't putting his all into it. Playing half-heartedly like that… we lost more games than we won. I'd get mad at him. 'What's the point in playing basketball if you don't care about it?'. He didn't have an answer to that.

But… I think I know why he played, even though he didn't like it. Basketball hurt him, but he couldn't let it go. The future he'd been looking forward to- working as a model, being an idol- that was gone, and he was trying to cling onto the past instead of trying to move forward to an unknown future. Even though he couldn't be a member of the generation of miracles anymore, he was trying to substitute that with our team."

"So, uh…" Kagami began, uncertainly. He was a little confused as to what to say. He wasn't used to people spilling their guts to him so early in the morning. "What does that have to do with me not asking about Kuroko?"

"I don't want him to go back to the way he was- dwelling on the past and never looking ahead," Kasamatsu said, "I'm worried that if he starts thinking about Kuroko again, he'll become obsessed with what happened once more. I know you probably think Kise's annoying right now, but trust me, I'd rather put up with annoying, loud, bubbly Kise than go back to him being miserable all the time."

"Should you really be calling your friend annoying?"

"Trust me, at this point, I think I've earned the right to call him annoying."

"Well, I'll try not to talk to him about it anymore, but…" Kagami frowned. _But I can't make any promises_. After all, surely Kise had to be involved in Kuroko's unfinished business. "Are you sure he's really moved on? I mean, he runs that website…"

"Oh, trust me, you've no idea how many times I've tried to get him to shut that thing down," the other groaned, rolling his eyes. "But I figure that that's not _too_ bad. And he doesn't edit it much now, anyway. Kise's the kind of person who throws himself into a project like that with a lot of enthusiasm then forgets about it."

"I think you're being a little overprotective," Kagami said.

"I guess," Kasamatsu admitted with a shrug, "But I can't help worrying about him. He's such an idiot, he needs someone looking out for him."

They arrived at the station, and Kasamatsu said, "Sorry for unloading all this onto you, Kagami-san. I think I got carried away. I'm kinda embarrassed."

"Don't be," Kagami said, shaking his head, "I mean, I understand what it's like to want to help out a friend. Kise's lucky to have someone like you."

"Uh, right," Kasamatsu said, "Anyway, I think we're on different lines, if you're heading towards the fire station – I'll see you later."

"Sure, see you," Kagami said, a little relieved to be parting ways with the other. As he waited for his train, he couldn't help but wonder what he'd do if it came to breaking the news about Kuroko to Kise. Hell, even Momoi… if he had to tell them, how would he do that? What if they thought he was mocking them, or that he was crazy? He tried to imagine what would happen if someone told him that a friend he'd thought had died half a lifetime ago was still around. He'd probably think they were kidding around, and then he'd be _pissed_.

_You've put me in a really awkward position, Kuroko,_ he thought, and his expression darkened a little. Finally, though, his train pulled into the station, and he forgot all about the other as he began his commute.

xxxxxx

He got an unexpected email that day at work.

His boss had been merciful and agreed that he could stay at the station, but added that that was only because it was dangerous to send someone out on call when they weren't fully alert, and warned that if Kagami came into work in this state again, the promotion he was slated for would be on the line. Kagami hadn't even known he was due for promotion, but he didn't argue.

So he was doing some work on the computer – which revolved more around playing solitaire and reading local news while keeping an eye out for anything incriminating on Kuroko's behalf – when he checked his email. Spam, a newsletter from a store he was a member of, and one unread message from an unexpected sender.

**SUBJECT:** Long time no talk.

**SENDER:** Himuro Tatsuya

**MESSAGE:** Hey stranger. How come I heard you were in Japan through a third party instead of from you? I'm still looking for that rematch. I heard you stopped playing basketball when I came back here, so you better not have let your talents go to waste and gotten fat or something. I'll definitely be able to beat you if we meet up again, so let's finish it once and for all.

Kagami read the email over a few times. Meeting up with Himuro again – that was something he'd wanted to do ever since the other had moved back to Japan while he'd stayed in America, but they'd never managed to do it. Be it through a lack of funds or a lack of time, they'd put it off over and over again until fifteen years had passed, and a greeting out of the blue had surprised Kagami, but he quickly typed a reply.

**SUBJECT:** Re: Long time no talk.

**SENDER: **Kagami Taiga

**MESSAGE:** Sure, let's find a court and pick a time. It'll be good to see you again.

Though it frightened him, too. Kagami wasn't sure how he could face him in a match.

**SUBJECT: **Re: Re: Long time no talk.

**SENDER: **Himuro Tatsuya

**MESSAGE:** I'll leave the planning up to you. Give me a call when you find something – my number's…

xxxxxx

"Playing basketball with a friend?"

Kagami nodded, and looked to Kuroko. He'd had a surprise visit from Aomine that day, who'd said he had 'something urgent' to discuss with him and dragged him away promptly. Considering the nature of the meeting, it seemed obvious now why he wouldn't want to discuss it in the hallway or in his apartment, where Kise might overhear or see him.

What's more, it wasn't like he could take Kuroko there. Kagami thought it was a little risky to meet up in Magi Burger, considering how Kise and Momoi both lived locally, but then, this kind of place seemed a little… wrong for people like them, flashier than a greasy fast food place.

It was a greasy fast food place and all, but that didn't stop Kagami from ordering five burgers. He was on his third one when Kuroko asked the question, and he mumbled through a mouthful of it, "Yeah, a friend from America."

"Swallow your damn food before you eat," Aomine snapped, and Kagami glared at him, but swallowed the chewed burger and bun anyway. "But why are we talking about this? Don't either of you wanna explain why you dragged me out here?"

Kuroko seemed pensive. Looking at him like this, Kagami couldn't help but notice how strange he looked. He was younger than he should have been, but seeing as how this human appearance was more of a disguise than his true form, Kagami supposed he shouldn't be surprised, but beyond that- Kuroko was cute. He thought of it in an off-hand manner, the same way he'd thought Kise was pretty without thinking much of it, the same way he'd think Himuro was beautiful for a guy without dwelling on it, how he'd admired Aomine's hot bod without even knowing, but the fact of the matter remained: Kuroko was cute. Almost _too_ cute, for a human-eating monster.

"Kagami-kun, you're staring," Kuroko said, and Kagami was jolted out of his reverie, his face slightly flushed. Kuroko took a sip of his vanilla shake, then said, "I was thinking – about what you'd said about unfinished business. I thought over what you'd said and… I think I realised what it was."

"That's fine," Kagami said, relieved that they at least had something to work off of. "But why is _he_ here?" He demanded, with a nod in Aomine's direction.

"I couldn't very well go to your apartment to collect you, after I found out Kise-kun was staying there," Kuroko said. "It doesn't matter much, anyway. Aomine-kun is a part of this – he's involved, so maybe it's good that he's here."

"I'd rather not be," Aomine grumbled, "And for the record, I don't think it's good for Kagami to get involved. If too many outsiders find out- hell, even if more of us find out-"

"But I think it is inevitable that people find out about me," Kuroko interrupted him, his determined tone unwavering. "Because I think my 'unfinished business' involves all of us."

Aomine only gave him a questioning glare, and he said, "I think, before I died, I was very troubled by how far apart we'd drifted. What had made me happy, what I loved – basketball – had become the source of much stress and trouble for me. Honestly, I was beginning to think that a sport was not worth the upset it was causing amongst us. I think that if I was able to learn to love basketball again, that might help me rest in peace."

"And that involves all of us…?"

"It is absolutely vital that I make peace with the other members of the team," Kuroko answered. "I think that I have to let them know- that I don't resent them. That I respect and admire them."

Aomine didn't seem convinced.

"And I would like to know that they value me, too."

"If that's the case, you're never gonna hear that from me," Aomine snorted, but Kuroko didn't seem offended.

"I already know that you value me, Aomine-kun. After all, if you didn't, you wouldn't be helping me right now."

Aomine seemed embarrassed, but he played off his awkwardness in his typical cool guy manner… though Kagami noticed how his voice seemed a little tighter as he said, "Well, if that's what you think you need to do… but I worry about what will happen if you go through with that. I don't know if Satsuki… if it would be wise to let her know. And some other people will probably be pissed if they find out what's going on."

Aomine was being vague about whatever it was he was trying to say, and it annoyed Kagami. What, was he being excluded from a secret even though he was a part of all this now? But despite Aomine's ambiguity, Kuroko seemed to know exactly what he was talking about.

"If that person has a problem with Kagami-kun's involvement, then I will deal with them."

"You're pretty brave, Tetsu," Aomine said, chin in his hand, before he said, "Well, anyway, I think I should be going. It's getting late, and Satsuki will probably be worried. I'll leave you two alone- and Kagami? Ask for Tetsu's number, so I don't get used as an errand boy again."

With that Aomine stood, pulling on his coat before vanishing from the restaurant. There was an awkward silence, before Kagami said, "Uh, can I have your number?"

"Why, Kagami-kun, I didn't know you thought of me that way."

Kagami spluttered. "Idiot! It's because Aomine said-!"

"I know it was because Aomine said," Kuroko murmured. He paused, before saying, "Actually, maybe it's better if I had your number. I don't own a cell phone-" who the hell didn't own a cell phone, in this day and age? Kagami wondered- "and if you were to call my friend's house and I didn't answer, I'm not sure I'd want you speaking to whoever picked up."

"What the hell kind of person is this 'friend', anyway?" Kagami muttered, but he grabbed a pen from his pocket and scribbled his number on a napkin before shoving it towards Kuroko. "Here."

"Thank you, Kagami-kun. I'll treasure it always," Kuroko said seriously. He picked it up, folded it neatly, and placed it in his coat's pocket. Kagami wondered why he was even wearing a coat, given how warm it was. It wasn't a particularly cold night, but the heating in the restaurant seemed to be on full blast, and Kagami – and many of the other customers – had stripped to as few clothes as was still decent, while Kuroko sat swaddled in a thick winter coat.

"Oi, aren't you too hot like that?" Kagami asked, taking a bite of his burger, and Kuroko seemed surprised.

"Is it hot?" He asked. "I don't really notice heat anymore. Even when it's snowing, I don't really get cold. I guess because my body doesn't have a need to keep warm anymore, temperature is irrelevant."

"I guess… that's pretty freaky, you know that?" Kagami said, and Kuroko just gave him a look as if to say, yes, I know that. While he had the opportunity, Kagami couldn't stop himself from asking more questions. "So you're living at this friend's house now, but what do you do during the day? You seemed to have a routine when you stayed at your apartment, out in the morning, back in the afternoon. I kinda thought you had a job."

Kuroko's answer surprised him.

"I did have a job. I volunteered at a day care," Kuroko answered.

"Was… was that safe? You around kids?" Kagami asked, a hint of concern in his voice. "I mean- slow moving and little- aren't they perfect for a snack?"

"I don't know when you got comfortable enough around me to start joking about my condition, Kagami-kun, but I'm not sure I like it."

"I wasn't joking."

"Well, in any case, the children were in no danger," Kuroko said firmly, shaking his head. "Aomine-kun arranged it – an acquaintance of his ran the day care, and he wrote me a letter of recommendation and said I was of good character, and they let me help out."

"They didn't ask you for ID or to fill out any forms or anything? How the hell did you manage that?"

"You may not respect Aomine-kun, Kagami-kun," Kuroko said, "But other people do. As a detective, he's helped a lot of people, and he has a lot of sway over the community. Besides, he can be quite charming when he's not dealing with you."

The thought of Aomine acting charming made Kagami's stomach churn. Or maybe that was the four burgers he'd eaten.

"I was wondering…" Kuroko began, and Kagami looked up. "If I could join you when you went to play basketball."

Kagami considered it, but Kuroko seemed to think he was thinking of a polite way to let him down, because he said, "I'll understand if you say no. After all, if you're meeting up with a friend-"

"No, it's fine," Kagami said, shaking his head. "He won't mind… I think. I'll call him and ask, okay? I don't think he'll care. If he's cool with it, I'll let you know when we're going."

"Thank you," Kuroko nodded, "It's been a while since I've played. I'm looking forward to it."

Kagami stuffed his fifth burger in his mouth.

**a/n:** hey minna-sans! i hope you enjoyed the chapter. i'll tell you something - we're getting close to finding out who kuroko's mysterious (or, well, maybe he's not so mysterious now) friend is. i think we're about halfway through the story, but considering how the updates keep getting longer and longer, i don't think that means much... (´o_o`) next update will probably be at the weekend! until next time! have a great week! （＾_＾）


	7. Chapter 7

The day came.

He'd be reunited with his older brother.

He'd put everything he loved on the line.

Welcome to another thrilling chapter of,

**_HUNGRY GHOSTS_**

"Tetsuya is mine, do you understand? He's mine!"

The redhead was screaming now, eyes bulging as he hunched over in his chair. "Tetsuya, I killed for you, and you repay me by running off with him! I won't forgive you! I can't forgive you!"

Kagami grunted in pain, wiping away the blood that streaked down his face. The gash above his eye spurted some more, and he clamped his hand over it.

"Tetsuya, are you listening? I'll destroy you both! I'll gauge his eyes out and feed them to you! I'll blind him then tear him apart bit by bit!"

The other's rantings continued. Kagami swayed a little on his feet. His vision was getting blurry.

"My word is absolute!"

How had it come to this?

**Friday / 12:19 PM**

"Kagami-kun?"

"Hm?"

"What is that?"

Kagami and Kuroko were waiting in a park, sitting side-by-side on a bench. At first, Kagami wasn't sure what the other was asking – and then he followed his gaze to the ring that hung around his neck, suspended by a silver chain. The ring had seen better days – the silver paint had begun to chip off, revealing the truly coppery metal underneath, but to Kagami, it was more precious than platinum.

"Oh- it's a symbol," he said, holding it up. "My friend gave it to me. The one I'm going to meet today."

"I see," Kuroko said, holding out a hand and taking the ring between his fingers. He slipped the tip of his pinkie through it, but it didn't even fit past his first knuckle. "It's small. Is it from a long time ago?"

"Ah- yeah, when we were kids," Kagami said, after he'd found his voice. Watching Kuroko's slender fingers fiddle with the ring, his heart had beat a little faster, though he didn't know why. He cleared his throat, before saying, "I hardly ever wear it anymore, but it still means a lot to me."

"You're a surprisingly sensitive person, Kagami-kun."

"What?!"

"I'm saying you're a sap."

"I'm not a sap-!" Kagami began to protest, but he was caught off guard when he saw a familiar figure approaching. Slick black hair, a tear drop mole and a matching ring around his neck, Kagami leapt up from the bench, grinning stupidly. "Tatsuya!"

"Taiga!"

"TATSUYA!"

"Hi," Himuro smiled, stopping to stand in front of him, thumbs hooked in the pockets of his jeans. "I thought you wouldn't have changed a bit, and you haven't. You're the same as ever."

"Well, fire fighting keeps me fit," Kagami said, "But you're a salaryman- how come you haven't succumbed to middle age yet?"

"My company has a basketball team," Himuro explained, before saying, "Oh, but it's nothing special – mostly it's a bunch of old men trying to hang onto their youth, and the interns trying to impress the office ladies. It's been a while since I had any real challenge – this'll be fun." Himuro seemed to have forgotten the true implications of their match – they'd never had their final fight to decide who kept the rings and whether their brotherhood would come to an end, after all – but Kagami was just fine with that, even if it was a little anticlimactic. "Well, where's your friend?"

"Oh, I'm here," Kuroko said, raising a hand. Himuro jumped, and Kuroko said, "Sorry for surprising you. My name is Kuroko Tetsuya."

"Himuro Tatsuya," Himuro replied. He seemed a little shaken, but Kagami couldn't blame him. Kuroko could be a little unsettling at first, and it surprised him that he'd gotten used to him. But Tatsuya was quick to trump him once again (dammit, his big brother was way too cool!) by instantly composing himself as he said, "Well, let's go to the court."

xxxxxxx

"We probably look sad, three adults playing on a children's court," Kuroko said, bouncing the ball against the asphalt.

"Well, that's why we're doing it on a Friday, when the kids should be at school," Himuro said, "But you don't look that old, Kuroko. You look like you could be in school yourself."

"I'm thirty one," Kuroko said shortly, which seemed to floor Himuro. When he seemed to give the other a look that said _how?_, Kuroko only looked at him seriously, and said, "Rigorous moisturising." He bounced the ball towards Kagami, and said, "And daily exercise. Let's play. I will cream you."

As it turned out, he didn't cream them. He could barely keep up, though he assisted with gaining a few points when on Kagami's team. Kuroko sat on the edge of the court as he watched Kagami and Himuro play, barely keeping score as they racked up points faster than he could tally. They finished at 82-82, and both seemed too exhausted to continue.

"Hey, let's call it a draw," Himuro panted. Sweat was pouring off him.

"What? No!" Kagami gasped, clutching his chest with his hand, "We can finish it- let's go to a tie break…"

"Let's just say you won- I think you scored a basket we forgot to count-"

"What? No, that's not- hah…" Kagami began to wheeze, and he slumped down next to Kuroko, who looked at him with a hint of concern in his eyes.

"Kagami-kun, I think you should stop for the day. Your stamina seems to be depleted."

"Who are you to be talking about stamina?" Kagami snapped, and Kuroko wasn't sure whether his face was red from exercise or embarrassment. "You gave up after ten minutes! So much for being a member of the generation of miracles!"

"I know you're just upset that I didn't play with you for longer, but there's no need to be cruel…"

Neither Kuroko nor Kagami saw it, but Himuro's eyes seemed to flash with recognition. Neither of them could have known the chain of events that one off-hand comment from Kagami could set off.

"Well, I guess we'll need to settle it another time. I'm beat," Himuro said, grabbing a towel from his bag and running it over his face and neck. He tossed it to Kagami, who did the same then handed it to Kuroko, who didn't seem particularly pleased to be receiving a towel with two men's sweat on it.

**Friday / 3:19 PM**

Kagami said goodbye to Himuro at the station, after a totally bro hug, no homo, and an almost tearful farewell, no homo. They'd promised to meet up again in a few weeks, but Himuro's diary was packed with business and he lived a few hours away, so it was hard to find a convenient time. Still, seeing him had been fun – it had made Kagami weirdly nostalgic for basketball. He'd liked basketball, but he hadn't thought he'd miss it that much, and he wondered how he'd fell out of the habit of playing it.

"You were really cool today, Kagami-kun."

Kagami looked to Kuroko, raising an eyebrow. "What? I thought I was a sap."

"You can be cool even though you say really embarrassing things at times. You're good at basketball," Kuroko insisted. "I think I'd like to play again with you sometime."

"Sure, next time Himuro and I play-"

"No," Kuroko interrupted him, looking oddly determined. He grabbed a hold of Kagami's necklace and tugged it hard, so the chain dug into the back of his neck. "I want to play with you. One. On. One."

"Uhhh," Kagami said. He couldn't tell if Kuroko was joking or not, but from the steely look in his eyes, he guessed he was serious. "Okay, then. We can play sometime- just give me a call…"

Kuroko released the necklace.

"Good," he said, sounding happy. "Then I should be going, Kagami-kun. My friend will be upset if I'm home late. We're on different lines, right?"

"Right," Kagami nodded. "I'll see you later, then," he said, and he watched as Kuroko disappeared into the crowded train station.

**Saturday / 1:28 AM**

"Kagami-kun, are you awake?"

"I am now," Kagami grumbled as he clutched the phone to his ear, rolling over in bed to check the clock. Red letters declared it was well past acceptable calling hours (not that he hadn't figured that already), and that along with the worried tone of Kuroko's voice made him a little concerned. Usually, if someone called him in the middle of the night he'd not-so-politely tell them where to go, but Kuroko sounded different to how he usually heard him; anxious, breathy. "What's up?"

"It's… hard to explain over the phone," Kuroko said. Faintly, in the background Kagami thought he could hear someone else talking – or yelling. "Could you come over here? I'm sorry, I didn't know who else to call. Aomine-kun is working right now and-"

"It's fine, I'll come," Kagami said. He didn't know why he was annoyed that Kuroko had thought to call Aomine first. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and said, "Where are you?"

"At my friend's house."

Kagami paused, and Kuroko didn't answer his unspoken question, so he asked it outright.

"And why the hell have I to come there?"

"If you don't want to come I can handle it on my own."

"No, I'll come. I said I'd come, didn't I?" Kagami snapped. He found a scrap of paper and a pen and cradled the phone between his ear and the shoulder. "So, where is it?"

**Saturday / 2:04 AM**

The guy's place was a _bitch_ to get to. Over half an hour later Kagami finally found the apartment Kuroko had directed him to: it was in a slightly more affluent area than Kagami was used to being in lately, and he couldn't help but wonder if Kuroko's "friend" was really a sugar daddy of some kind. He gave a shudder, and put the thought out of his mind as he began to climb the stairs to the first floor penthouse.

The name plate said "Akashi".

Kagami raised his hand to ring the bell, but before he could the door snapped open and Kuroko was there. Tattered basketball uniform, glowing eyes. Kagami didn't even flinch, though his nose did wrinkle a little as he saw something red on Kuroko's exposed teeth. Blood…?

"Oi, you haven't killed anyone, have you?" He said, sounding a little concerned, worried for the first time what he'd really gotten himself into.

"Of course not," Kuroko answered, but his voice sounded tight. He took hold of the front of his uniform and tugged it up to wipe his face, red coming away and staining the already grubby fabric. "It's… my friend, he found out that I've been talking to you, and he became a little upset."

Kagami raised an eyebrow. Upset over what? But besides that…

"How did he even find out? You told him?"

"Of course not," Kuroko said once more. "It turns out that… your friend, Himuro-san, knew Murasakibara-kun, a member of my team in middle school. It seems that your comment earlier this afternoon was picked up by Himuro-san, who told Murasakibara-kun, who is still very close to Atsushi-kun. It was bad luck that they all happened to know each other and all thought to mention it to one another and it got back to him, but…"

"Well, that aside, what does it matter if he knows you're talking to me?" Kagami said, "I mean, you're allowed to talk to other people."

"Akashi-kun…" Kuroko seemed to mull over his words for a while, and for the first time, Kagami realised they were whispering. As Kuroko thought, Kagami glanced around the apartment – they were in the entrance way, a tiny lobby with only enough room for a small end table with a telephone on it and a coat rack, but even so it seemed to give off an air of distinction that few places had.

"One thing you should know about Akashi-kun is that he was always used to being in control, even as a middle schooler. He was the captain of our team. He was incredibly smart, but also terrifying."

Kagami seemed dubious. "Terrifying? A fourteen year old kid?"

"Well, I was also fourteen at the time. Actually, when I got back in touch with him recently, I thought the same as you – that he couldn't really be _that_ bad. Maybe I'd turned him into some kind of monster in my head, that over the years the memory of him had become worse than the reality… but I don't think that's the case," Kuroko shifted uncomfortably. "Akashi-kun hasn't changed much since middle school. He is still incredibly intelligent, very manipulative, and frightening. But now he's different – in middle school, he at least respected authority, and I never knew him to harm others. Now he doesn't seem to care very much about other's safety or wellbeing. I need you to call the hospital, Kagami-kun, because he's this way through illness."

"Illness?"

"He's ill. Usually he takes medicine to manage his mood – antipsychotics. But I don't think he's been taking them recently. I think he probably needs to be hospitalised, and… well, with myself in this state, I can't arrange for an ambulance to come, and I can't ensure he gets there safely."

"Aren't you being a bit extreme?" Kagami said, a frown creasing his forehead. "I mean, he's an adult, right? Maybe I can reason with him."

"Kagami-kun, I don't think that's a good idea-"

"I'll try," Kagami said resolutely, and before Kuroko could stop him he'd opened the door that led further into the apartment. It was dark, and silent. Through the gloom, Kagami could make out tall bookcases and ornate furniture. The value of the items in this room alone probably added up to more than everything in his apartment did. He could see a light coming from behind a door on the other side of the room, so he made his way over slowly. He'd thought he wasn't nervous, but now he could feel himself growing a little anxious, his palm sweating as he gripped the door handle and turned and slowly pulled it open.

This room was light. It took him a moment to even realise that there was anyone in it; but then he saw him.

He was barely taller than Kuroko, and almost as thin as him – even in his skeletal state. He was hunched forward in a chair, a blanket covering spindly legs, long red hair falling down to cover his face.

This was what Kuroko had been afraid of?

"Um, excuse me," Kagami said, "Akashi-san?"

There was no response. Without hesitation, Kagami stepped forward, but then

it happened before Kagami could even react

one of those thin arms moved to the side of the chair, grasping something silvery from the table that sat beside it – Kagami wasn't sure how he had long enough in the few seconds between this action and the next to notice that the arm he'd thought was thin and weak was actually corded with tight muscle, and the silvery shine he'd caught a glimpse of was the blades of scissors – and then it drew back and whipped forward, and whatever Akashi had held was sent flying straight at Kagami.

Kagami could only register a searing pain as the blades of the scissors embedded themselves in his forehead, just above his eyebrow. Just a little lower, and he would have been blinded, but he didn't have time to think about how lucky he was as he wrenched the scissors out of his flesh. They'd sunk in deep, and pulling them out of the wound caused almost as much pain as they had going in. He threw them to the ground with a clatter, and looked up, wiping away the blood that streaked down his face as he yelled, "What the _fuck_?"

"Kagami Taiga," Akashi's voice was strained as he looked up, mismatched eyes bulged in their sockets as he said, "How dare you! How dare you come here and try to steal what's mine! You're a lowly thief! Scum! Criminal!"

"I'm none of those things, you freak," Kagami protested, but his words were drowned beneath the volume of Akashi's voice as it rose, louder and angrier than before.

"Tetsuya is mine, do you understand? He's mine!" Kagami stared, and Akashi twisted in his chair, looking towards the door Kagami had come through. "Tetsuya, are you listening? I'll destroy you both! I'll gauge his eyes out and feed them to you! I'll blind him then tear him apart bit by bit!" Kagami clamped his hand over his gushing head wound. Akashi's ranting was beginning to sound less and less like words and more like noise, and he didn't know if that was because the other was becoming more incoherent or if he was losing consciousness. He didn't get his answer until he fell backwards, and Akashi's voice turned into a drone as he stared upwards, blood pooling over his eye and turning his vision red.

**a/n: **(´＿｀。) uh oh! kagami! this chapter ends on a cliffhanger, but not much of one because i plan on uploading the next chapter over the next few days. two chapters in one weekend! whoa! （・◇・）i hope you enjoyed this chapter. next chapter... well, you'll find out soon!


	8. Chapter 8

"You're an idiot!"

"I'm sorry, Aomine-kun…"

"You should have called me- hell, anyone would have been better than _him_. The person Akashi hates most at the moment, and you invite him into his house?"

"It was Kagami-kun's idea to talk to him, not mine. And there weren't many other people I could call."

"Heh?"

"You know, I think most people would think that if I called them out of the blue, it was a prank call."

"Still, you could have called the hospital- or lied about who you were on the phone."

"Lying is bad, Aomine-kun."

"So is dragging me out of work because you've got an idiot bleeding to death on the floor and a sociopath out for more blood."

Kagami's head hurt, and listening into someone else's conversation wasn't making the pain any easier to deal with. He was in an uncomfortable bed and in a room that smelt like sterility, and when he opened his eyes he was faced with an unfamiliar ceiling.

"Kagami-kun, are you awake?"

Kagami tilted his head to the side. Moving it hurt like hell, and it felt like he had the world's worst migraine – but he could turn it to the side just enough to see Kuroko and Aomine, perched on uncomfortable looking plastic seats beside him. The rest of the room seemed to come into focus now, too; white sheets, a rail along the edge of the bed, signs reminding people to wash their hands on every surface. This was a hospital room.

"Don't ask me that," Kagami mumbled.

Kuroko seemed confused. "What?"

"You asking 'are you awake?' started one of the worst nights I've ever had in my life," Kagami muttered, "I don't ever wanna hear those words from you again."

Kuroko's confused expression eased into a relieved one, and Kagami smiled back. He didn't know why, but seeing him look so pleased that he was okay made him feel…

"I told you," Aomine interrupted his slightly dreamy moment, his voice carrying both a hint of smugness and annoyance. It was half 'I told you so' and half 'why the hell didn't you believe me when I told you so?' "I told you you were gonna get hurt if you didn't leave Tetsu the hell alone, but did you listen? Noooo. Bakagami."

"What the hell did you call me?" Kagami growled, grabbing a hold of the cot side and hauling himself into a sitting position – though he immediately regretted it a jolt of pain shot through him, and he let out a hiss of pain. "Shit, that freakin' _hurts_."

"You have stitches, idiot," Aomine drawled. "Be careful not to burst them by thinking too hard, though I don't see that being a possibility. If you're well enough to start looking for a fight, I'm gonna leave."

"Like I wanted you here anyway," Kagami snapped, "If I'm gonna die in hospital, then you're the last person I want to see before I do, Ahomine."

"What the HELL did you call me?"

"Can there not be a brawl on the ward, please?"

Kagami and Aomine's heads snapped to the door. A man stood in the doorway in a white uniform, a pleasant smile on his face.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave, Aomine-san, before our good man here ends up with another traumatic head injury," he said, but there was a tongue-in-cheek side to his words. Clearly, he didn't think that Aomine and Kagami were really the eternal rivals they really were. He even seemed to think that they were – Kagami shuddered to think – friends!

Aomine didn't seem to want to argue. He said goodbye to Kuroko and excused himself, and as the nurse picked up the chart at the end of Kagami's bed, Kuroko said, "Um, can I…?"

"Oh, you can stay, Kuroko-san," he replied quickly, flipping the folder he held open. "Don't worry about it. Usually we don't like letting people stay outside of visiting hours, but considering Kagami-san slept through most of them, we'll make an allowance."

"Thank you," Kuroko said. Kagami was feeling increasingly more clueless.

"No problem," the nurse said, strapping a cuff around Kagami's arm and beginning to pump it up, "I mean, I know if it was my boyfriend in hospital, I wouldn't want to be thrown out just like that before I'd even had a chance to talk to him. Kagami-san, your blood pressure's through the roof!"

Kagami wasn't listening. He was staring at Kuroko, an incredulous look on his face. _Boyfriend? _He asked silently.

Kuroko shrugged. _Well, it's not like they would have let a complete stranger in to see you, _ his innocent expression seemed to say.

Kagami was not satisfied with that excuse. _Boyfriend? _He glared. _Boyfriend?!_

The cuff on his arm deflated and the nurse pulled it off. "I'm just going to change your dressing, Kagami-san, then I'll leave you alone."

"I'd like an explanation first," Kagami snapped, and his eyes swung from the black-haired nurse to Kuroko, who was quiet. Kagami squinted – why was his vision so blurry, he wondered? – and made out the name on the bronze badge that hung from the uniform. "Takao."

"That's my name, but you're kinda bold without an honourific," Takao answered. He peeled back some bandages Kagami hadn't been aware were on his head, and he felt a little ill as he saw them drop onto the trolley by the side of his bed, covered in blood.

"I apologise on my boyfriend's behalf," Kuroko said, and Kagami choked. Kuroko smiled at his reaction. That little twerp, he was enjoying this-! "He spent a lot of time in America, and he forgets his manners sometimes."

"Oh, I see," Takao hummed. "Well, that's exciting, right? And you come back to Japan and forget to call someone –san and they're so offended they attack you with a knife, is that what happened?"

"That's not exactly…"

Takao laughed, cutting Kagami off and surprising him. "I'm kidding. I know what happened to you. Kuroko-san and Aomine-san filled me in on it when you arrived."

Bits of the incident trickled back to Kagami; upon waking, his memory had been foggy, but a little bit of prompting and it came back to him… as well as the pain in his head.

"Fuckin' psycho…"

"Hey hey, mind your language," Takao said, and he dabbed at the wound with something that stung. "My boyfriend happens to be personally acquainted with your attacker, and I've met him a couple times. Nice guy. Don't know what you did to piss him off so much, but it must have been major."

"You know Akashi-kun, Takao-san?"

"Well, like I said, I know him through my boyfriend, it's not like he's a friend of mine or anything. Shin-chan's known him for years, though."

"Shin-chan…" Kuroko murmured the name, seeming deep in thought. After a moment, he said, "Midorima-kun?"

"Oh yeah, that's him," Takao nodded. "Don't tell him I call him that at work. He's Shin-chan-sensei in the hospital. Works as a doctor in the neurology ward- you're lucky you didn't end up as one of his patients, Kagami-san. When Kuroko-san told us you wouldn't wake up, we were thinking there might be more to your head injury, but you've got a thick skull. Musta protected your brain."

"I don't know if I should be reassured or offended," Kagami said blandly, and Takao smiled.

"Why can't it be both?" He said, before saying, "Don't worry, we're almost positive there's no lasting damage – though you had us worried for a while. How are you feeling?"

"Tired," Kagami muttered. His head hurt, his body hurt, and he wanted to sleep.

"I'll let you rest," Takao said, "We want to keep you in longer if you're not up and about by the end of today, though. Better safe than sorry, right?"

Kagami only shrugged, and he was happy when the other finally left, closing the door behind him. What business did someone have being so loud and cheery in a hospital? Sitting in the room alone with Kuroko, gloomy and quiet as always, he was relieved that the other's company was so chill. Still, he felt like he should break the silence, and he said, "Did you really have to make up such a ridiculous lie?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, darling."

Kagami glared at him, unamused. "I mean, saying I'm your boyfriend, that's a bit…"

"They wouldn't let me stay if they didn't think I was important to you," Kuroko said, "And I didn't want you waking up alone."

They were quiet, and Kagami muttered, "Idiot, you are important to me."

"What?"

"You're my friend," Kagami snapped, and he felt himself blush as he said the words. Embarrassing! He was embarrassing himself! "You're impor… never mind."

"Kagami-kun, you're so cheesy," Kuroko said, but he seemed pleased by his words. He looked down, fidgeting slightly, wringing his hands together. Kagami looked down to his hands, and he slipped his own past the rail of the hospital bed, placing it over Kuroko's intertwined fingers. "Stop acting so nervous. I'm fine."

"I know, but… I was worried. What if you're not?" Kuroko murmured, "If they're wrong and you're really hurt, it would be my fault."

Kagami's hand fell away from Kuroko's and he sighed, lying back in bed.

"I'm fine," he said, stressing the second word. Then – mostly to change the subject, but also because he was a little interested – he asked, "Who's Midorima?"

"Midorima-kun was…"

"Another member of the generation of miracles?"

"How did you know?"

Kagami shrugged. "It just figures. He knew Akashi for a long time, and none of you seem to have taken the initiative to move very far away, so it made sense to me."

"Maybe you should be a detective. You'd give Aomine-kun a run for his money," Kuroko said, before he sighed and said, "Midorima-kun was a member of the generation of miracles. He pretended to dislike all of us except Akashi-kun, but I don't think he would have been on the team if he really hated us. He was a very serious student- it's not really a surprise that he became a doctor. What's more surprising is that he ended up dating someone like Takao-san."

"Well, they say opposites attract."

"Do you think that's why we're together?"

"Quit it with the boyfriend stuff," Kagami grumbled, and Kuroko shook his head.

"No, I mean, do you think that's why we're friends?" Kuroko said. "It's not like we have anything in common."

Kagami paused, before saying, "I don't think it matters that we don't have anything in common," he said. "I think, most of the time, people end up being friends because they're in a shared situation rather than through shared interests. I mean, think of the people on a basketball team. Sure, they all like basketball, but usually they're completely different people otherwise – but that shared motive, wanting to play basketball and wanting to win, keeps them together. I think that because you and I both share a goal… that's why we're friends."

Kuroko didn't reply, and for a while Kagami thought he'd said something wrong, before the other said, "I'm happy to hear that."

He wasn't sure what to say. Kagami looked away, and Kuroko said, "Anyway, I should probably leave. If you're still here this afternoon, I'll come visit then."

"Don't bother," Kagami said, "I'll be out by then."

xxxxxxxx

He wasn't out by then.

That afternoon, he bought a newspaper off of the trolley that came round, and read it carefully. Even so, reading a newspaper only took so much time, and half an hour later he was as bored as ever. He tried to do the Sudoku and the other puzzles in it, but they just made his head ache and he gave up. He ended up doodling in the margins, and at half past three in the afternoon Takao appeared at his door.

"Hey, Kagami-san," he said, "You've been in bed all afternoon. Want to try getting up?"

Kagami was hesitant. His head still ached, and he felt dizzy if he moved around too much, but he did want to get up. He'd been sitting in a hospital gown all day, and he wanted to get his clothes on and move around. He pulled himself up and sat at the edge of the bed, clutching his head as he tried to stop himself from swaying from side to side.

"Don't push yourself."

"I'm fine," Kagami grunted, "I want to get up."

"Kuroko-san brought you some clothes over," Takao said, dropping a pile of clothes on the bed next to him before drawing the curtains around him. "If you need any help, call me."

"Sure," Kagami muttered, though he was determined not to. He could get dressed on his own, for god's sake!

Getting dressed was harder than he anticipated. His head was throbbing and he felt exhausted by the time he finally settled down in the chair next to his bed, and he fingered the bandage that was wrapped tightly around it as he waited, lost in thought. Had his wound really been that bad? He guessed it was, if it had knocked him out and he was in hospital with it, but he still wanted to go home.

Visiting hour came round again, and Kagami was surprised to see a stranger with Kuroko this time. Tall and green haired with glasses and a white coat, Kagami guessed that he was a doctor, and from the general green colour scheme he had going on, he could also guess that he was Midorima.

"Good afternoon, Kagami-san," the doctor said coolly, "How are you feeling?"

"Head hurts like a bitch," Kagami answered, "You're Midorima?"

"That's me," he said, "Anyway, I'm not staying. I was just walking Kuroko back to the ward. Not because I wanted to, I had to ask… someone… here… something. In any case, I'll be leaving now."

The tall doctor shuffled out of the room, and Kuroko looked back to Kagami. "We went to visit Akashi-kun together. He's on a ward in this hospital."

"The psych ward, I hope."

"Don't be cruel," Kuroko reprimanded him, his voice sounding firm. "Anyway, Akashi-kun told me to send his regards to you. He said he'd like to apologise to you, so I think it would be good if we went to visit him."

Kagami gaped at Kuroko. "Visit him? He threw scissors at me!"

"He's very sorry," Kuroko said. He sat down on one of the plastic chairs at the side of the bed, looking to Kagami. "Anyway, he's going to be in hospital until his mood stabilises, so…"

Kuroko trailed off. "I'm going to be staying at his place until he's ready to go home, but afterwards I think I need to move out."

Kagami didn't say anything. He wanted to offer Kuroko a place to stay, but the words wouldn't come out. Instead he said, "How did Midorima react?"

"To…?"

"To finding out you were alive."

"Oh," Kuroko said, before looking down at his hands, clasped in his lap. "Well… he found out through Akashi-kun, who was in a talkative mood and gave him the whole story. He thought Akashi-kun was delusional, of course, when he started talking about… well, you know. I don't know what he came away thinking. Midorima-kun is a very guarded man. He didn't have much to say to me when we met again… but then, I don't think he particularly likes me."

Kagami didn't say anything. How was he meant to reunite the generation of miracles and make everyone happy and help Kuroko move on when it was filled with glamour pusses, weirdos and cuh-razy tsunderes! But still, something had been weighing on his mind…

"Oi, Kuroko," he began, and Kuroko looked up. "What exactly is Akashi?"

Kuroko was quiet. Kagami prompted, "Is he some kind of criminal?"

Kuroko looked down, and Kagami pressed on.

"He said he'd killed-"

"Yes, he has." Kuroko interrupted him, as though he didn't want to hear anymore. "Indirectly, not personally. Akashi-kun has a lot of influences, though I've never asked what it is he does exactly. He's a very powerful man. All I know, is he's been providing me with… things to eat for the past month or so."

Kagami frowned.

"It's not like I like it," Kuroko muttered, "But I don't have much of a choice."

"I know," Kagami said, not really wanting to continue the conversation.

They were quiet for a while. Kuroko sighed quietly, and Kagami felt a little bad for steering the conversation in that direction.

"They said I should get out tomorrow, if I'm steadier on my feet," he said. "If you want… we can go visit Akashi then."

Kuroko smiled, and Kagami wondered what it was about him that made him always let him have his way.

**a/n:** hey minna-chans! i hope you all had a good weekend. (^ ^) i hope you enjoyed this chapter, too. next chapter update should be the end of next week, and we'll see a little more of akashi and midorima then. （・◇・） so i'll see you then!


	9. Chapter 9

Kagami felt better tomorrow. He was up and about with no difficulty, and the bandage could come off his head now – though he still winced whenever he saw the Frankenstein like scar across his forehead.

"It looks worse than it is," Takao said, patting him on the back. "You know you've to come back next week to get the stitches out, right? Don't forget to call if you've any trouble- oh Shin-cha-!"

The green haired doctor sent a cool glare at Takao, who cleared his throat and said, in a tone that would have been mocking if it hadn't been so affectionate. "I mean, good afternoon, Midorima-sensei." And then, surprising Kagami, who hadn't even seen the shorter man enter alongside the other, "And hello again, Kuroko-san."

"Hello," Kuroko said, nodding. "Is Kagami-kun ready to go?"

"He's all patched up," Takao answered, "Just make sure you don't burst those stitches! Take it easy for a few days, nothing that could cause a… sudden rush of blood."

Kagami blushed so hard his whole frickin' head turned red! And Takao was warning Kuroko about that kinda thing! It didn't make matters any better when Kuroko only nodded and said, "We'll be careful", and Kagami was thankful that he had a comrade in seriousness in Midorima, who pushed his glasses up his nose and coughed and said, "If you're all done clowning around, shall we go visit?"

Kagami remembered his promise to Kuroko and instantly regretted it. But a promise was a promise, and he wasn't one to back out of them. He picked up his bag of things that he'd somehow accumulated in his short stay (Kuroko offered to carry it, but he stubbornly refused – he'd only had stitches, he wasn't an invalid), thanked the nurses at the station, and made his way downstairs.

The ward they entered now required Midorima to swipe his name badge, and he told Kuroko and Kagami to wait outside while he went inside. He was there for a while. Kagami looked to Kuroko, whose expression was unreadable, and as though sensing his confusion, Kuroko said, "He has to make sure he's ready for visitors today."

"Is he still…" Kagami trailed off, unsure how to put it sensitively. Finally he decided to hell with sensitivity, that guy had thrown scissors at him! Freakin' scissors! "…Crazy?"

"He's better now, but don't expect him to be your best friend," Kuroko replied, to which Kagami snorted. Fine by him.

Eventually Midorima reappeared, and Kagami noted that he had taken his tie off, as well as shed his white coat and pushed the sleeves of his dress shirt up to his elbow. It was a far more casual look, but not one that suited him, like when you see a dog wear cool sunglasses and you think, "Wow, that looks cool, but also hella weird."

"He's decided he'll take visitors today," Midorima said, and Kagami couldn't help but get the impression that Akashi clearly thought it was a great honour for them to be allowed to see him. Whether that was a delusion of grandeur brought on by his illness or if his ego was just that big, he didn't know, but he didn't give it much more thought as they walked through the ward.

Hospital wards were never particularly comforting places, but this one seemed even less welcoming than usual, with gloomy lighting and patients mulling about aimlessly. When Midorima guided them into a brightly lit room, Kagami was thankful, but his brief relief from the dark corridor was shattered when gold and red eyes turned on him and Akashi said, in a very pleasant voice, "Hello, Tetsuya, Shintarou. And Kagami-san – thank you for coming to visit."

Akashi sat in a large armchair that only served to make him look smaller. His legs were tucked underneath it, and a newspaper was spread out on the table in front of him, opened to the sports pages. Kagami glanced down. There was a story about baseball, and a slither of coverage of a soccer game, but there was no basketball.

"You're looking well, Akashi-kun," Kuroko said pleasantly, taking a seat by the bed. Midorima followed without hesitation, and Kagami hovered uncertainly.

"Please don't look so nervous, Kagami-san," Akashi said. Again, pleasantly, but there was an unsettling smile on his lips. It didn't look entirely real. "I'm not going to bite you, or throw scissors at you again. I'm very sorry for that, by the way. I simply wasn't myself that night."

Kagami shrugged. Akashi closed his newspaper, then looked to Midorima. "Shintarou, can you get me a coffee?"

Midorima seemed to hesitate. "You're not allowed hot drinks-"

"An iced coffee, then," Akashi said, his voice as cool as a can of iced coffee.

"You don't like…" Midorima began, before he sighed. "I'll ask one of the nurses-"

"No. I want you to get me it."

Midorima seemed torn, but finally he stood, leaving the room. Akashi waited until he'd left, and said, "He's really not supposed to leave you two alone with me. I'm surprised at his negligence." He folded his hands in his lap, then said, "But it would do no good to have him here while I try to talk to you. He still thinks I'm delusional after I told him about Kuroko. Rest assured, I may be unwell, but as of this morning I am free of delusions."

Kagami sat down awkwardly in the seat Midorima had left, and Akashi looked to him.

"So here is what is going to happen, Kagami-san," he said, "You are going to take Tetsuya and let him stay at your house."

Kagami stared at Akashi, unsure if he'd heard him right. Once he was sure that he hadn't misheard him, he said, "Uh, you know, I don't have a house- I live in an apartment."

"My mistake. You are going to take Tetsuya and let him stay at your _apartment_."

"That… isn't the point," Kagami said, rubbing his forehead. "I live in a one bedroom apartment. It's tiny. There's barely even enough room for me in there."

"Well, maybe if you weren't so comically oversized," Akashi quipped. "In any case, I think it's quite clear that Tetsuya can't live with me anymore. I pose a danger to him, and Aomine-kun has spoken to me and we've both agreed that the process of finding him food is a rather risky one. I can no longer house or feed him, and so I'm handing the responsibility of him over to you."

"What is he, a cat?" Kagami growled, looking to Kuroko, who looked up with big eyes that were cute enough to belong to a baby animal. But he wouldn't let puppy dog eyes sway him! For one thing, he didn't even like dogs, and for another, he had no room for Kuroko – and besides, he didn't even _want_ to think about what feeding him would involve.

"Kagami-kun…" Kuroko said, and Kagami shook his head. Nope. Nuh uh. No way.

"Kagami-san, shouldn't you do whatever you can to help a friend?" Akashi said. Kagami shook his head harder. N-O. His stitches hurt.

"Then Tetsuya will be forced to live on the streets," Akashi said, "That's fine."

Kagami's head stilled, and he frowned. Was there really nowhere he could go? Aomine couldn't find a place in his heart (and apartment?) for his best friend? Midorima probably lived in a home worthy of a doctor's salary, and he couldn't spare one of his five bedrooms? Kise and Kasamatsu's place must have been cramped, but surely they wouldn't mind helping out a friend? When it came down to it, though, Kagami knew that the problem Kuroko faced wasn't exactly where he stayed, but who with. Kagami knew about his secret, but he was one of the few who did – Kise, Midorima, and Momoi were all oblivious to it. There was no way he could stay with them.

"I guess he could stay… for a few days! Until he finds somewhere else," Kagami said, arms crossed over his chest defiantly.

"Well, now that that matter's dealt with," Akashi said, and Kagami couldn't help but feel as if he hadn't taken the fact that it was only for a few days into account. "I heard you were planning on helping Tetsuya with some 'unfinished business'. What exactly does that entail?"

Kagami felt a little pressured. It was one thing to promise Kuroko that he would help him, and he had a pretty idea of what he wanted to do to fix that, but when it came to putting his plans into words… he faltered. He had a vague idea of what seemed good, but no way of knowing what would actually work.

"I thought, maybe…" He frowned. "Kuroko… wanted to play basketball again, with everyone? And have fun with it?"

"Play basketball," Akashi repeated. Kagami nodded, and he sounded strangely melancholy as he said, "Kagami, do you think I sit in a chair all day because I enjoy it?"

Kagami stared at him, bamboozled, before he pieced it together. Of course – all the times he'd seen Akashi, his legs had laid perfectly still, even when he'd been thrashing around in his chair before, even now. And a glance at the door to the room confirmed his suspicion – he didn't know how he'd missed it, but there it was, a collapsible wheelchair folded up neatly by it.

"So as you can see, playing basketball is impossible. Find another solution."

"It's not impossible-"

"Find another solution," Akashi repeated, his voice firm. Kagami couldn't really bring himself to argue – where there was a will there was a way, but Akashi clearly did not have the will to even attempt to play, and there was no way that plan could go ahead without his cooperation.

Kagami looked to Kuroko, feeling exasperated. "What other regrets do you have?"

Kuroko shrugged, which annoyed Kagami, but he realised the reason for his silence as Midorima came back into the room, clutching a can of coffee. He handed it to Akashi, who thanked him and then with frail hands opened it.

"I didn't think you liked cold coffee," Midorima said.

"I don't. I like it hot," Akashi replied. "But I can't be too picky when they're not allowed to give me anything that has the potential to be a dangerous projectile. Do you want to play Shogi, Shintarou?"

I don't know if you've ever watched two people play Shogi but lemme tell you if you're not interested in it, it is booooring! So for the sake of people reading this fic who are not interested in the greatest spin-off of chess since sliced bread, I'll just tell you now that Akashi won. Unfortunately, Kagami had to sit through the game, and finally seeing Akashi win and Midorima saying they'd have to get going ranked as one of the happiest moments of his life, alongside the only time he'd gotten an A+ in his life (home ec. class, the day they were making hamburgers) and when his date to junior prom let him get to second base (unfortunately, another 'only time' in his life. Dang.).

Kagami stood and stretched as Akashi cleared away his Shogi board (more like Shogi BORED, am I right). It had been a long day, even though it was only four in the afternoon, and he had work to do still. He had to catch up on laundry and go shopping, and even though he had the rest of the week off (his boss had been adamant that he was not going to come into work with stitches in), it seemed like an overwhelming amount of chores for one man. Maybe he could make Kuroko do some work, but he wondered if the other was even capable of taking care of a house. His apartment had practically been bare, after all, and everything had been covered in a film of dust.

"Do you want a ride home, Kagami-san?" Midorima asked, and Kagami was going to decline – they didn't have far to walk, after all, and with the traffic it would probably even be faster, but Kuroko interrupted him.

"Yes, thank you," he said, before adding quietly when Kagami gave him a questioning glance, "It's rare for Midorima-kun to do something like this. He wouldn't offer if he didn't want to."

Kagami frowned, but he didn't say anything. Midorima drove a swish, green – okay, what is it with these freakin' baskeball players and colours? – car. Kagami took the back seat. To his surprise, Kuroko didn't sit in front but sat in back with him, which made him feel kind of awkward. Midorima wasn't a chauffeur, after all.

"So, how are you feeling?" Midorima asked, breaking the silence first. He didn't sound particularly enthused, but going by what he knew about the man so far, Kagami knew he probably wouldn't ask if he really wasn't interested.

"I feel fine now. They took good care of me."

"Takao seemed to like having you on the ward."

"He was a big help."

"Yes, well, he's good for something, at least," Midorima said, and he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as they waited at a stoplight.

"How did you guys meet?" Kagami asked, not wanting to the conversation to end and that uncomfortable silence to resume.

"We met through basketball," Midorima answered, after a pause. It didn't take Kagami long to realise that that pause had been because he was conscious of Kuroko in the back seat. "We played on the same team in high school."

"You kept playing after the accident?"

Midorima didn't answer, and Kagami wondered if he'd touched on a raw nerve. It was obviously a sensitive subject, though Midorima's expressions were hard to read.

"Forget I said anything," Kagami muttered, and the conversation ended there.

They pulled up outside their apartment a while later, after even more uncomfortable silence. Midorima said goodbye curtly before speeding off, and Kagami sighed.

"Well, let's go inside," he said, but when he turned he found the door to their building blocked by a familiar blonde.

"…Kurokocchi?"


	10. Chapter 10

"Kurokocchi?" Kise's voice held a variety of emotions: happiness, disbelief, confusion. He was staring past Kagami, to the blue haired boy whose face remained blank, expressionless. Kise's own face looked as startled as he sounded, and not seeming any less surprised, he asked, "Kurokocch- Kuroko, is that really you?"

Kise looked like he'd seen a ghost. Heh.

"It's me," Kuroko said, after hesitating, "You're looking well, Kise-kun."

Kagami wondered what it was like, to spend half your life thinking a friend was dead and then have them appear before you, barely looking and sounding any different to how they did when they were alive: Kuroko looked a little older, but he hadn't changed as much as the other generation of miracle members had, and no doubt Kise couldn't believe his eyes. But Kuroko remained stoic while the other seemed overwhelmed.

"It's been a long time," he said, "I'm sorry for my disappearance. You must have been worried."

"No, no," Kise said, shaking his head. "It's just good to see you're _alive_. God, it's been so long." He stepped aside, laughing as he said, "Anyway, we probably look like a bunch of idiots, standing outside in the cold. Come in!"

Kise insisted they go to his apartment, formerly Kuroko's. Even though he and Kasamatsu were only staying there for a few more days, they'd already made it their own. Kise had about six pairs of shoes which he kept littered outside the door – he kicked off an expensive pair of leather loafers when he entered the apartment to join them – and the kitchen table seemed to be shared equally, with invoices for repairs and bills and today's newspaper and one (1) magazine about guitars on one side, and the other chaotically littered with a variety of fashion and movie magazines, a trashy crime novel lying dog-eared.

"What do you do nowadays, Kise-kun?" Kuroko asked, and Kise gave a weak smile.

"Well, I'm not really working right now – after high school I did a little bit of singing and voice acting, but it bored me, so I quit," he said, matter-of-factly. "I had enough money from my modelling to tide me over for a while, and when Kasamatsu-senpai and I started living together, he was earning enough to support both of us. He's really good at his job."

There was a lot of pride in Kise's voice. Kagami said, "You two sure are good friends."

Kuroko laughed, startling Kagami. The smaller boy looked incredulous as he looked up, a smile on his lips, "You're very naïve, Kagami-kun."

"I thought that, but I didn't like to say anything," Kise agreed with a sheepish smile.

Kagami was annoyed. "What?"

They seemed hesitant to explain, and then Kuroko said, "Well, Kagami-kun, it's just… it's obvious that Kise-kun and Kasamatsu-san are more than friends."

What did that mean?

More than friends?

Maybe…

that they were BEST friends?

No…

That they were…

!

Kagami gaped, and Kise laughed. Kuroko gave a weak smile and said, "Honestly, Kagami-kun, I thought you were wiser about that kind of thing. I even thought you and Himuro-san were-"

"Tatsuya and I are brothers!" Kagami said quickly, "There's nothing like that between him and I!"

"He gave you a ring, Kagami-kun."

"We were kids!" Kagami snapped, exasperated, but then he saw how Kuroko smiled and realised he was teasing him, and he blushed harder than he had been before.

"I wish senpai would give me a ring," Kise sighed wistfully.

"How did you two meet?" Kuroko asked, and Kise smiled. Clearly, he was lost in his own memories.

* * *

Kise chose Kaijou High on a whim.

In another life, devoid of scarring (mentally and facially), bus accidents and whispers behind his back and people staring at him, he might have chosen to go there after hearing about their basketball team. As it was, though, he decided to go there because it was easy to get to and he had the grades to enter it, even after missing most of his final exams in April.

Returning to school after a few months hospitalisation was strange. He'd studied in hospital, keeping up with his core subjects, but it was about more than returning to schoolwork – in a way, he was a different person. Or rather, he was the same person – he felt like himself, though sadder than he used to be – but people saw him differently.

Before, he would have been the centre of attention, chased after by girls and boys alike and admired for his good looks and charm. Now he was quiet and withdrawn, and while girls were still rather enamoured by him – an ex-supermodel! a broken young man that they could fix up and make their own! – they quickly lost interest when he refused their advances.

He didn't expect to be approached by a guy. The third year was kind of plain, but there was a gleam in his eye as he said, "Hey. Are you Kise Ryota?"

Kise gave him a look as if to say 'obviously'. He was the only first year with blonde hair, after all, and the only first year with horrific facial scarring on top of that.

"You should come play basketball with us," the third year continued. "I'm Kasamatsu. I'm the captain of our team – I thought you might want to come along one day."

Kise wasn't sure what he made of this offer. Did the other feel pity for him? Or did he think that Kise would be good for the team?

He should refuse. He knew that. But he couldn't help himself; even if basketball had caused him pain, he still loved it. He wanted to play. He didn't answer though, and Kasamatsu said, "If you want, you can come along to afternoon practice today. Don't worry if you decide not to, though."

Kise still didn't reply. Months earlier, he would have been all beams and smiles, but now he only stared at Kasamatsu with a sullen expression. He felt a little guilty when Kasamatsu, seeming embarrassed, excused himself and left the classroom. He heard his classmates snicker behind him, and he placed his head scar-side down on his desk.

That day, he went to practice. The rest of the team seemed confused, and Kasamatsu seemed even more so, but he quickly turned his confusion to a smile and said, "Kise-kun, I'm glad you came." He bounced the ball to Kise, who caught it instinctively. His stomach clenched. This had been the first time he'd touched a basketball since before the accident. "We're just warming up right now. You can join in if you like, but I guess since you don't have a change of clothes you can't do much. Take it easy for now."

"What position did you play on your old team?" Someone else asked. "Were you a regular?"

"I was a regular," Kise said, "Small forward."

"Wow, that's impressive," they said, "What team did you play for?"

Kise hesitated. He knew it would be a Big Deal if he told them, but he couldn't exactly lie. "Teiko."

"Teiko?!" Kasamatsu was staring at him now, eyes wide. "If that's the case, that means you were a member of the generation of miracles, right? How the hell didn't I recognise you?"

Kise didn't want to suggest why he wouldn't. He only shrugged, and Kasamatsu said, "You could have told me! I thought that I was only being told to ask you to join because…"

He trailed off. Kise had an unreadable expression on his face. So he had been asked to join out of pity – but not even pity from a well-meaning senpai, but from a teacher! Adults were looking down at him like he was a child. Without thinking, he turned and ran from the gym, the basketball bouncing away from him as he let it fall to the ground.

It had been a while since he'd ran. He'd avoided all exercise during his time in hospital, and even upon being discharged, he hadn't played any sports. So it was a strange sensation when he felt his legs aching, and Kasamatsu caught up to him without even looking winded.

"What the hell?" The third year demanded, "Why'd you…"

"I don't want your pity!" Kise yelled. All his pent up emotions from the last few months were coming out. He'd cracked, and he couldn't stop the words from spilling past his lips. "Do you think I want to be looked down upon? I'm not a kid!"

"I don't think you're a kid!"

"I've been through more than anyone can imagine, so don't go pretending you understand!"

"Shut up!"

Kasamatsu shoved him. Kise stopped talking and reeled back, blinking his good eye as he stared at Kasamatsu. His fists were clenched into fists, and Kise realised that he was probably lucky he was pushed instead of punched.

"Idiot, do you think I feel sorry for you? I barely know you! Sure, I asked you to come along to practice because your homeroom teacher told me to, but if you didn't want to come, you wouldn't have!" He said, and Kise wanted to protest.

"I didn't want to! I came because you asked! I hate basketball!"

"If you really hated it, you wouldn't have come along," Kasamatsu said, "I hate people who don't take responsibility for their own feelings, so man up and accept that you want to play basketball or don't come!"

Kise was quiet, and Kasamatsu's angry expression softened. He looked down, seemingly embarrassed as he said, "Hey, look, I'm sorry- that wasn't fair of me to say-"

"No, you're right." Kise said. He chewed his bottom lip, and said, "I'll come next practice and really give it my all, so please show me how to love basketball again, senpai."

It was a year later, when Kasamatsu was ready to graduate and Kise was saying goodbye to him, that he realised what his feelings meant. It came to him all at once as he watched the other laughing with their other team mates, a rosette pinned to each of their lapels. To think: he respected Kasamatsu as more than a captain, admired him as more than a basketball player. They didn't really have much in common, but Kise liked him, and he was a man, but he couldn't help but think how his smile was charming, and how even in those goofy kneesocks he wore in matches he just looked so _cool_.

"Senpai, can I talk to you?"

"Huh?" Kasamatsu looked up, wiping tears in his eye that had been brought about by some dumb joke. Or maybe he was getting over emotional. A year with Kise, and some of his bad habits seemed to be rubbing off on him. "Sure."

They walked for a while, Kise leading the way, weaving between other students as they made their way through the crowds. Finally they made their way to the roof, which was surprisingly empty – but then again, Kise guessed that most of the graduating students would rather be out celebrating than hanging around the school. Maybe Kasamatsu would, too, Kise thought, and for a moment he felt selfish for dragging him up here, and then he decided he didn't really care. Selflessness be damned, this was important.

"Oi, Kise…" Kasamatsu began, clearly wondering why he'd been brought there, but Kise interrupted him.

"Where are you going to college again, Kasamatsu-senpai?"

"Huh?" Kasamatsu frowned. He'd told Kise this several times already. "Showa University."

Of course. He was going there to study music production. Kise remembered being surprised when he found out the other played guitar, and since then he'd been determined to learn more about him. He'd discovered that they didn't really have any bands in common- Kise liked pop stars and idol groups, and Kasamatsu liked a lot of western music- and Kasamatsu was terrible at karaoke while Kise could entertain an entire room full of people with it, and for such a plain guy, Kasamatsu sure could look cool with an instrument in his hands.

"That's pretty far away," Kise said, leaning against the rail on the side of the roof.

"It's not that far," Kasamatsu said, "I'm going to be coming home on holidays."

"Even so…"

"You can come visit me."

"But still…"

"You can phone me every day."

Kise paused. "_Every_ day?"

"Well," Kasamatsu backtracked immediately, "Maybe not every day. But most days. Some days."

"It's gonna be weird not having you around," Kise said, and Kasamatsu smiled.

"It's going to be even weirder not being around you," he replied. He joined Kise at the edge of the roof, hopping up onto the raised bit the rails ran along so they were about the same height. "You've really changed since you came to this school, you know."

"Heeeh?! Really?!"

"Yeah. For one, you're way too loud now," Kasamatsu said, knocking him lightly on the side of his head with his knuckles. "But it's fine. Being that way suits you."

Kise beamed, his eyes closed – though they opened again in surprise when he felt lips press against his own, and his face flushed. "S-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-senpai!" he stuttered.

He was glad to see that Kasamatsu was as red at him. At least the other found that as embarrassing as HE had. But he seemed to take his surprise as something else, and looked away as he said, "I though that was what you wanted to talk to me about."

"No- I mean, it was, it's just…" Kise floundered. "I thought we'd actually… talk about it, before doing something like that."

"You're acting like it's something scandalous," Kasamatsu said, "Like you've never been kissed before."

Kise buried his hands in his face. Sure he'd been kissed before, by relatives and girls who liked him, but always on the forehead or cheeks or totally platonically. He'd never been SMOOCHED by the HOTTIE that he LIKED before! He buried his face in his hands, and Kasamatsu said, "No way."

His hands moved to wrap around Kise's wrists and he pulled his hands gently away from his face. He felt awkward. They both felt awkward.

"You really can come and visit me," he said firmly. "And you can call whenever you want."

"I know, but it's not going to be the same as seeing you every day."

He sounded like a whiny kid, and he knew he was acting the way Kasamatsu hated him to. The other didn't seem annoyed, though.

"It'll be fine," he said. "We just have to give it our best shot."

* * *

"So you met through basketball?" Kuroko asked.

"Yeah. We didn't get together properly until after we'd both finished college, though," Kise replied. He had a dreamy look on his face, and Kagami sighed, slumping back in his chair. He was sick of all these guys living happily ever after when he'd never even had a freakin' girlfriend! Kise smiled and leant forward, his chin resting on his hand, "What about you, Kurokocchi? You're thirty, don't you have someone special in your life?"

"I wouldn't say I had someone special," Kuroko answered, giving the kind of response Kagami would have expected- that was, until he added, "But there is someone I admire. Maybe even someone I like."

That was weird. Kise's mouth opened, perhaps to ask who, but he changed his mind abruptly when the door to the apartment opened and he said, "Oh, senpai! Welcome home!"

"Hey," Kasamatsu said, dumping his bag beside the door. "Nice to see you, Kagami," he said, before looking to Kuroko, one eyebrow raised, "Uh, Kise, who's…?"

"Oh, isn't it awesome?" Kise beamed. "Kurokocchi came back!"

The look on Kasamatsu's face made it clear that it was certainly not awesome. Sounding as though he couldn't believe had he'd heard, he repeated, "Kuroko…?"

"Nice to meet you," Kuroko said, giving a small bow of his head from where he sat.

"Don't give me 'nice to meet you'!" Kasamatsu snapped, before turning to Kise, "Kise, don't tell me you'd let a stranger into our house so easily!"

"It's not a stranger," Kise replied, sounding indignant, "It's Kurokocchi!"

"He's a stranger to me, and this is my apartment as well," Kasamatsu hissed. His voice was getting lower, quieter, angrier; clearly he was trying to argue without appearing to be mad. It was not working - in fact, the hushed tones his voice took on now sounded more dangerous than they would if he was shouting. "And besides, I thought he was DEAD! Why's he showing up here now?"

"Of course he wasn't dead! I never thought he was dead!" Kise protested, but when it came to the next question, he wasn't so sure. He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck as he grinned nervously. "As for that, though… I don't really know why he's here?"

"You don't even ask that kind of thing of someone who's coming into the house? He might not even be who he says he is!"

"Of course it's Kurokocchi!"

"What if he steals from us? What if he's some kind of criminal now? You can't just trust a guy who shows up after years of disappearance without a good excuse!"

"Kurokocchi would never!"

"Kise, you're so _simple_-"

Things got nasty then. Kagami shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and he jumped slightly when he felt Kuroko's cool hand on his wrist and the other mouthed 'let's go'. He more than welcomed the opportunity to escape, and Kise and Kasamatsu seemed not to notice as they slipped out of the apartment.

Even next door, they could still hear them arguing through the thin walls. Kagami sighed, and shut the door firmly behind them. He made his way over to the fridge, and opened it – it was a long day, and he was hungry after a few days of eating hospital food.

"Can you cook?" Kuroko said, taking a seat at the kitchen counter. He seemed interested as Kagami began chopping vegetables.

"Yeah."

"You don't seem the type," Kuroko said, "You seem too… manly."

"What does being manly have to do with it?" Kagami snapped. "A man's got to eat too. A man who relies on a woman to cook for him is a fool."

"Are you saying that because you're bitter about not having a girlfriend, Kagami-kun?"

Kagami glared at the smirk that was on Kuroko's face, and he chopped the carrots harder. He ducked his head to hide his blush, and said, "Well, in any case, I've known how to cook for a long time. My parents were always busy at work, so it was my responsibility to prepare dinner for myself."

"You're a capable man," Kuroko said.

"What about you?" Kagami said, looking up. He could chop carrots without even looking at them! Yes, ladies, he's single!

"Me?" Kuroko looked away, his usually apathetic expression turning to a small frown. "I knew how to cook simple things, but often there wasn't anything at home I could use to make meals. Usually I ate at night when we went out for food after practice."

"And what about when you didn't have practice?"

"Then I didn't eat," Kuroko said, and Kagami felt bad for bringing it up. He wanted to ask more in spite of knowing he shouldn't, though – after all, he was curious about the other's life before he'd died, the one that didn't revolve around basketball. Wasn't that normal? But Kuroko ended the conversation abruptly when he said, "I'm sorry. I don't like talking about my home life."

"It's fine. I didn't mean to bring it up if it's painful," Kagami said. He tipped the veg he'd chopped into a pan, and Kuroko peered over to the sizzling stir-fry.

"You're making a lot, Kagami-kun. Even for someone who eats as much as you," he commented.

"That's because I'm making enough for you, too."

Kuroko was silent, which only made him feel more embarrassed. But then he heard a quiet thank you, and while he still felt awkward, at least it wasn't so bad.

Later they sat at the table. Kagami ate his food as though he hadn't eaten in a million years (to him, it felt like he hadn't), while Kuroko picked up some of the perfectly prepared food and looked at it sceptically.

"It won't poison you," Kagami said.

"It's bad manners to talk with your mouth full," Kuroko chided him, before he added, "And I know. It's just… I'm not sure if I even can eat anymore."

"Well, try," Kagami said, unaware of how truly unattractive he must have looked, talking with a mouthful of food.

Kuroko popped the food dangling from the end of his chopsticks in his mouth. He chewed, slowly, then swallowed. Kagami felt like a profession chef awaiting a judge's decision, but to his surprise Kuroko gave a thumbs up.

"It's good," he said. "Delicious."

"I'm glad," Kagami said with a smile, "So you can still taste stuff, at least?"

"Yeah. It tastes much better than corpses."

Kagami hit Kuroko over the back of his head. "That's not much of a compliment, idiot!"

Kuroko smiled weakly, but he didn't eat very much more. They fell into silence as Kagami wolfed down the rest of his food, though that was awkward considering how they could hear Kise and Kasamatsu rowing next door. Kagami grabbed the TV remote with his spare hand and turned the set on; the sound was blaring, but at least that was better than overhearing a couple's fight.

They watched ten minutes of a variety show, then the news came on. Kagami stood up to wash the dishes at the sink and Kuroko sat on the couch, knees tucked up against his chest. Kagami was only half listening to the report that was on, but when a name was mentioned his ears pricked up.

"Did they say Aomine?" He asked, coming to stand behind the couch as he towelled a mug dry.

Kuroko nodded. "Yes. I was careless last night."

The reporters were hassling Aomine again, who as usual turned his attention away from the camera and told them to leave the crime scene. Kagami couldn't work out where it was, but it looked like the interior of a hospital.

"You didn't hurt anyone?"

"Nothing like that. But the corpses Akashi-kun supplies aren't going to be coming anymore, so I have to rely on scavenging again," Kuroko said, and Kagami didn't like the images the word brought. If Kuroko was a scavenger, the dead bodies were carrion. "I broke into a morgue."

Kagami stared at him.

"A morgue?"

"At the hospital." Kuroko couldn't meet his eye. "I'm sorry, Kagami-kun. When I should have been worrying about you, I was more worried about where my next meal was coming from."

"It's fine," Kagami said, though it wasn't fine. After a moment he groaned, and rubbed his eyes. "Why the hell did you have to remind me?"

"Remind you…?"

"That you're not…" Kagami trailed off. "That you're like that! I just get used to being around you and then you start talking about how you eat other people…"

"Sorry," Kuroko said. "Believe me, if I could survive on your cooking alone, I would," he added, before saying, "You'd be a good wife, Kagami-kun."

Kagami glared at him. "I… you'd be the wife here!"

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, for one, I'm going to be out working while you're staying at home, idiot."

"That's a terrible gender stereotype. Plenty of wives work full-time nowadays, you know."

"Whatever," Kagami said, sitting down on the couch next to him, "Plenty of husbands do the cooking too."

Kagami rolled his eyes, and Kuroko leant into him slightly as the news came to a close and the weather report started. "In that case, I'm looking forward to our life of domestic bliss, Kagami-kun."

**a/n: **OHAYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MINNA-CHANS! long time no see! i'm very sorry for my absence, so here's a big ol update to tide you guys over! i'm hopefully going to be updating more often from now on, so i'm sorry for the temporary hiatus. ;_; i hope you enjoyed today's chapter! stay kawaii!


	11. Chapter 11

Life with Kuroko was pretty easy – in fact, it was pretty much like it had always been, except with a supernatural roommate. Creepy as Kuroko was, though, he didn't steal anything of Kagami's out of the fridge and he never left a mess, so he was pretty much the perfect roomie.

Kuroko left the apartment at night and returned in the morning. Kagami would take to leaving money out on the table, and Kuroko would buy a newspaper on the way back from wherever he went. Kagami didn't ask about what Kuroko did at night, and he'd rather not know.

When Kise and Kasamatsu dropped by to announce that they were moving back into their own home, the renovations finished, Kagami wondered if Kuroko would take the chance to move back into his old apartment. After all, the one they lived in now was too small for two guys to live in long term, even when one of them was Kuroko, who barely lived there at all. Or lived in general. Sorry, I haven't written this fanfic in months. He's dead, right

"You ever think about moving out?" Kagami asked Kuroko once as he was eating breakfast. In retrospect, he acted it so bluntly it sounded callous. He only realised that once when Kuroko looked up, and the look on his face was on Kagami had never seen before.

"Do you want me to?" Kuroko asked.

Later, Kagami would realise that expression was hurt.

"Well, no- it's just that, it's kinda weird, living together," Kagami said. Again, he spoke without thinking – his words sounded self-deprecating, and insulting towards Kuroko.

"Is that so," Kuroko murmured. He dipped his head as he went back to reading the magazine, but Kagami wondered if it was because he didn't want to look at him any more.

The conversation ended, awkwardly, there. The next time Kuroko talked to him, it was about something unrelated and unimportant, and he assumed they'd both decided to forget the conversation, and to file the whole thing away with the other memories of awkward moments in their relationship.

But the next morning, Kuroko didn't come home. At first, Kagami thought he might just be late in coming home. He woke up early for work, after all. When he came home in the evening, though, Kuroko was still nowhere to be found, and then he got annoyed. Who the hell just up and left like that? It was so RUDE. Kagami stewed in his anger and when to sleep pissed off, and then in the morning, he woke up with an empty feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Kuroko could just disappear, without any consequences. He had no job, no family that he could go back to, and few friends. Kagami could probably call Aomine, but what would be the point in that? Aomine wouldn't tell him anything if Kuroko did want to avoid him. Kagami knew that much.

Days passed.

Kagami woke slowly, stirred by the sound of his bedroom door opening and closing, and then further roused by a weight on what little space was left on his single bed. He twisted, and craned his neck, and over his shoulder he caught a glimpse of Kuroko's eyes, glowing faintly in the dark. What surrounded them was skin and flesh, not blackened remains of a face that clung to yellowing bone. Kuroko's skin was so pale it seemed to glow in what little light was available in the bedroom.

"Kuroko," Kagami said. His mouth felt dry.

Kuroko didn't reply, but his arms wound around Kagami's waist and he pulled himself closer, flush against Kagami's broad back. He was so cold. Even through the shirt and boxers he'd worn to bed, Kagami felt his cool skin, and shivered in spite of himself. Or was he shivering in revulsion? Because Kuroko's breath was on the back of his neck, and in spite of Kuroko's human appearance his mouth smelt like rotting meat.

"Kagami-kun," Kuroko said. "Do you want me to leave?"

"If by leave you mean get out of my bed, then yeah."

"I wasn't joking," Kuroko said. His fingertips, sharp as bone, clutched at Kagami's shirt, dug into the skin beneath it.

"Of course I don't want you too," Kagami said.

"Do you really think it's weird for us to live together?"

Kagami didn't answer, and Kuroko seemed to take his hesitation as an answer. His grip on Kagami's shirt loosened a little, but he kept his arms around him. Kagami twisted where he lay, rolling to face Kuroko. The bed was a tight squeeze.

"Why don't you look… all gross and dead?" Kagami asked, for the first time voicing his confusion.

Kuroko just stared back.

"I really don't want you to leave, you know," Kagami said. "And I don't think living with you is weird."

Kuroko nodded, but didn't say anything. The silence was suffocating Kagami. Kuroko was staring at him, like he was expecting him to do something, and so he did something. He leant forward and kissed Kuroko. His lips were smooth and cold against his own chapped, hot ones. He felt his face heat when he'd realised what he'd done, and pulled back, but Kuroko's hand moved to catch the back of his head and guide his face back down, and they kissed again, longer and deeper this time.

For Kagami, it was an alien feeling. How embarrassing that at thirty he'd be having his first kiss – how weird that it would be with someone like Kuroko. Kagami's hands were itching to move, to touch Kuroko, and one came to rest on his hip bone. It was then he realised Kuroko was naked.

"If you give me a taste like that, I'm going to want to eat you," Kuroko said, bluntly, "If you kiss me again, I might bite your tongue out of your mouth."

Kagami did not reply. Because reminded of that fact, he saw Kuroko as he was once again; his flesh and skin seemed to shed from him, and Kagami was left alone in bed with the monster he'd seen for the first time on that night, months ago.

Kagami woke suddenly, jolted out of his sleep by the sound of his alarm. He remembered his nightmare with vivid clarity, but soon the details faded and he began to forget. Ten minutes later, he was left with nothing more than the fact that Kuroko had been in his dream, and it had been unpleasant.

He felt ill. When he finally got out of bed, he was half an hour late for work. He took some aspirins and called in, apologising profusely, but his supervisor excused him – he even encouraged him to go to the doctor's, so Kagami could guess that he sounded as shitty as he felt. He decided he'd just sleep off how terrible he felt, and took a nap on the couch instead.

A few hours later he woke up to the phone ringing, and he let it ring out. It began ringing again almost immediately, and with a sigh, Kagami hauled himself off the couch to answer it.

"Hello?"

"You sound like shit."

Oh.

"Thanks," Kagami said, leaning back against the wall. "What do you want, Aomine?"

"Has Tetsu been at your place recently?"

"No," Kagami answered. "Why?"

"He's not been here, either. Or at Akashi's."

Kagami slid down the wall to sit on the floor. He wished he had a cordless phone, so he could at least sit on a chair, but he was attached to the wall.

"I think I really fucked up," Kagami said.

"I think you did too. Not that I know what you did, but it doesn't seem unlikely," Aomine drawled, and Kagami wished he could punch people over the phone. But then, any of the sarcasm was gone from his voice, and he said, "What happened?"

Kagami told him. There was silence for a while, and then Aomine said, "I think it probably was your fault he left, but at the same time, it wasn't anything you did."

"That makes no sense," Kagami said.

"Maybe to someone as simple-minded as you," Aomine snapped. He was quiet. Then he said, "I think Tetsu really liked you."

"I liked him too," Kagami said. There was a pang of pain in his chest as he said it.

"Gross. He was all dead and shit."

"I don't to be shit-talked by a guy who lives with a girl for years and doesn't even have the balls to tell her he's into her."

"Into Momoi? That's even grosser than digging Tetsu."

Kagami felt himself laughing in spite of himself.

"Thanks for calling," he muttered.

"I'm more worried about you than Tetsu," Aomine said. "He'll get along okay wherever he is. You, on the other hand-"

"I'm fine," Kagami said, sharply. That was a lie – he was the opposite of fine. But he'd learn to cope with life going back to how it was before Kuroko came. It just took time to readjust. He let the phone rest in the crook of his neck as he sat back, staring out the apartment window. Outside, the sky was clear and blue. The colour left him feeling a little melancholy.

"Maybe he'll come back."

"Maybe."

He was doubtful.

**a/n:** ohio minna-chans! I'm going to be honest, I'm bored of this fic, so in all likelihood I'm ending it here. I'm marking it as completed so people won't expect updates. That doesn't mean I won't come back to it, if I become interested in it again, but right now I don't see that happening, and it hasn't updated in months, and I thought, it is time to End It.

I'm sorry if anyone was waiting on a proper end to this story! I really am grateful if you've faved it, followed it, or left a review, but even if you've just taken some time out of your day to read it, thank you very much!

So uh yeah, this is the end of Hungry Ghosts. Thank you again! NE1410IS-chan is saying goodbye for now!


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